Comprehension and Production of Word Order in Stage I

Abstract

ROBERTS, KENNETH. Comprehension and Production of Word Order in Stage 1. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1983, 54, 443-449. The notion that partial control of full agent-action-patient word order in comprehension may precede its production was examined. 10 children, 8 females and 2 males, ranging in age from 23 to 31 months, carried out actions specified by the verbs kiss, hug, and tickle in reversible active sentences. Sentences were presented to a triad of listeners consisting of a test child, a familiar adult caretaker, and a familiar older child. Latency of responding was the measure of comprehension. Production testing consisted of verbal responses to photographs depicting the comprehension sentences. 6 early Stage I children (MLU = 1.00-1.50) comprehended in the context of only 1 or sometimes 2 verbs but did not correctly produce the sentences in these verb contexts. 3 late Stage I children (MLU = 1.50-2.00) comprehended word order in the context of all test verbs. These results agreed with previous studies of late Stage I children using object manipulation tasks. It appears that (a) word order comprehension is present in early Stage I and is verb specific, gradually expanding verb by verb to apply across a wider scope of verbs; (b) response latency is a valid measure of comprehension; and (c) partial comprehension precedes production.