Abstract
How does parental causal input relate to children's later comprehension of causal verbs? Causal constructions in verbs differ across languages. Turkish has both lexical and morphological causatives. We asked whether (1) parental causal language input varied for different types of play (guided vs. free play), (2) early parental causal language input predicted children's causal verb understanding. Twenty-nine infants participated at three timepoints. Parents used lexical causatives more than morphological ones for guided-play for both timepoints, but for free-play, the same difference was only found at Time 2. For Time 3, children were tested on a verb comprehension and a vocabulary task. Morphological causative input, but not lexical causative input, during free-play predicted children's causal verb comprehension. For guided-play, the same relation did not hold. Findings suggest a role of specific types of causal input on children's understanding of causal verbs that are received in certain play contexts.
Highlights
Causal reasoning emerges as early as 6 months of age for a wide variety of events such as physical causes of launching and entraining (e.g., Gopnik, Glymour, Sobel, Schulz, Kushnir & Danks, 2004; Michotte, 1963; Piaget, 1954; Saxe & Carey, 2006)
The present study extends the literature by examining early parental causal input for different play contexts and its relations with children’s later causal verb understanding
We asked whether (1) parental causal language input differed for different types of play, and (2) early parental causal language input predicted children’s later causal verb understanding
Summary
Causal reasoning emerges as early as 6 months of age for a wide variety of events such as physical causes of launching and entraining (e.g., Gopnik, Glymour, Sobel, Schulz, Kushnir & Danks, 2004; Michotte, 1963; Piaget, 1954; Saxe & Carey, 2006). Most languages have at least one way to express causativity. In these causal events, an agent (e.g., figure) acts upon the patient (e.g., direct object) to change the state or position of the patient. Causal constructions in verbs can differ across languages. Languages use lexical or morphological verb constructions to express causativity (Comrie, 1989). Turkish has both lexical (e.g., kes, ‘to cut’) and morphological causatives (e.g., ye-Dir, ‘make someone eat’) to represent causativity.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
