Comprehension Of Word Order Research Articles

Do infants have abstract grammatical knowledge of word order at 17 months? Evidence from Mandarin Chinese.

We test the comprehension of transitive sentences in very young learners of Mandarin Chinese using a combination of the weird word order paradigm with the use of pseudo-verbs and the preferential looking paradigm, replicating the experiment of Franck et al. (2013) on French. Seventeen typically-developing Mandarin infants (mean age: 17.4 months) participated and the same experiment was conducted with eighteen adults. The results show that hearing well-formed NP-V-NP sentences triggered infants to fixate more on a transitive scene than on a reflexive scene. In contrast, when they heard deviant NP-NP-V sequences, no such preference pattern was found, a performance pattern that is adult-like. This is at variance with some of the results from Candan et al. (2012), who only found evidence for canonical word order comprehension at almost age 3 when considering fixation time. Furthermore, within the age range tested, performance showed no effect of age or vocabulary size.

The acquisition of compositional meaning.

How do people create meaning from a string of sounds or pattern of dots? Insights into this process can be obtained from the way children acquire sentence meanings. According to the well-known principle of compositionality, the meaning of an expression is a function of the meanings of its parts and the way they are syntactically combined. However, children frequently seem to ignore syntactic structure in their sentence interpretations, suggesting that syntax is merely one of the sources of information constraining meaning and does not have a special status. A fundamental assumption in the argument in favour of compositionality is that speakers and listeners generally agree upon the meanings of sentences. Remarkably, however, children as listeners do not always understand what they are able to produce as speakers, and vice versa. For example, children's production of word order appears to develop ahead of their comprehension of word order in the acquisition of languages like English and Dutch. Such production-comprehension asymmetries are not uncommon in child language and motivate a view of compositionality as a principle pertaining to the result of perspective taking, and of meaning composition as a process of speaker-listener coordination. This article is part of the theme issue 'Towards mechanistic models of meaning composition'.

Comprehension of word order in Turkish aphasia

ABSTRACT Background People with aphasia (PWA) have been shown to encounter difficulties in processing sentences with non-canonical (i.e., derived) word order. Although previous research points to similar impairment patterns in non-canonical structures in aphasia across many languages, there is only little agreement among authors why PWA experience these impairments. Aims This study aims to unveil whether and how far fluent and non-fluent PWA speaking Turkish, a flexible word order language, are impaired in comprehending different conditions of word order alignments in declarative sentences. Methods & Procedures Using a picture-matching paradigm, we examined two groups of Turkish speakers with aphasia: fluent PWA (n = 7) and non-fluent PWA (n = 10), and a matched reference group of non-brain-damaged controls (NBDs, n = 16). Participants listened to simple declarative sentences in four conditions: Subject – Object – Verb (SOV), SVO, OVS, and OSV. They were asked to point to the corresponding visual display that best depicts the sentence. Data were analysed with generalized linear mixed-effects regression models in R. Outcomes & Results Our findings have shown that the PWA performed less well than the NBDs overall, and that while the fluent PWA showed no condition differences at all, the non-fluent PWA performed worse in object-first (OVS/OSV) sentences than subject-first sentences (SOV/SVO), and no further condition differences were found. Conclusions We discuss that the data presented in this study support the theories that (i) predict derived structures to be affected in aphasia and that (ii) hold lexically restricted sentence material between moved objects and their base-generated positions to pose challenges in aphasic sentence comprehension. We also suggest that high structural frequency of subject-first sentences might have worked in favour of the PWA, rendering the comprehension of these structures easier to process.

The roles of givenness and type of referring expression in the comprehension of word order in Russian-speaking children

AbstractComprehension of sentences in the non-canonical word order usually poses problems for preschoolers (e.g., Slobin, Dan I. and Thomas G. Bever. 1982. Children use canonical sentence schema: A crosslinguistic study of word order and inflections.Cognition12. 229–265). These problems may be modulated by information structure, such as the presence of an appropriate context licensing the non-canonical word order and the type of referring expression. We examined the impact of the given-new order, induced by a context sentence, and the type of referring expression realizing the given referent (NP vs. pronoun) on the comprehension of SVO and OVS sentences in monolingual Russian-speaking 4- to 5-year-olds and adults. Children and adults showed high comprehension accuracy for SVO and OVS sentences, with accuracy rates above 80 % for OVS sentences. Context and the type of referring expression had no effect. Compared to a similar experiment conducted in German, Russian-speaking children outperformed their German-speaking peers. This difference may result from the earlier acquisition of the case system and a stronger given-before-new preference in Russian compared to German. Our data suggest that as soon as children rely more on morphological information during processing and employ adult-like processing strategies, their offline comprehension performance depends less on contextual and information structure factors.

Compreensão de ordem de palavras por crianças adquirindo o PB

Este artigo apresenta os resultados de um experimento de Olhar Preferencial voltado ao estudo da compreensão de ordem de palavras por crianças adquirindo o Português Brasileiro (PB). O experimento consistiu em mostrar às crianças dois vídeos simultâneos, com dois personagens realizando uma ação transitiva, mas mudando o papel de agente e paciente entre os vídeos. Um estímulo auditivo narra apenas uma das cenas. Nossa hipótese de trabalho foi a de que as crianças olhariam por mais tempo para a cena correspondente ao estímulo auditivo, pois reconhecem as posições canônicas de agente e paciente nas sentenças e identificam estas posições nas cenas apresentadas. Os resultados, no entanto, nos levaram a concluir que a informação semântica é igualmente importante para a compreensão sentencial na faixa etária estudada, ao menos para o experimento apresentado.

German Children’s Comprehension of Word Order and Case Marking in Causative Sentences

Two comprehension experiments were conducted to investigate whether German children are able to use the grammatical cues of word order and word endings (case markers) to identify agents and patients in a causative sentence and whether they weigh these two cues differently across development. Two-year-olds correctly understood only sentences with both cues supporting each other--the prototypical form. Five-year-olds were able to use word order by itself but not case markers. Only 7-year-olds behaved like adults by relying on case markers over word order when the two cues conflicted. These findings suggest that prototypical instances of linguistic constructions with redundant grammatical marking play a special role in early acquisition, and only later do children isolate and weigh individual grammatical cues appropriately.

Processes of Language Acquisition in Children With Autism: Evidence from Preferential Looking

Two language acquisition processes (comprehension preceding production of word order, the noun bias) were examined in 2- and 3-year-old children (n=10) with autistic spectrum disorder and in typically developing 21-month-olds (n=13). Intermodal preferential looking was used to assess comprehension of subject-verb-object word order and the tendency to map novel words onto objects rather than actions. Spontaneous speech samples were also collected. Results demonstrated significant comprehension of word order in both groups well before production. Moreover, children in both groups consistently showed the noun bias. Comprehension preceding production and the noun bias appear to be robust processes of language acquisition, observable in both typical and language-impaired populations.

Using Scientific Knowledge to Inform Preschool Assessment: Making the Case for “Empirical Validity”

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 crystallized the concern for accountability in education. National testing was mandated as a way to improve the “broken” educational system. Publicly funded early education programs were not spared from such testing. While the positive effects of high-quality early education on children’s later school achievement is well demonstrated, too many early care and educational settings in the United States are of minimal or poor quality. Accountability is clearly important for increasing the quality of our early childhood programs, however, it is not yet evident how best to formulate a standard of accountability that reflects the body of knowledge we have gained concerning how young children learn. In this report, we propose two major thrusts designed to bring about a more scientifically informed accountability system: reconceptualizing the ways in which we think about the validity of our test instruments, and reconceptualizing markers of development from products of learning (performance standards) to processes of learning. We introduce the term “empirical validity” to draw attention to the fact that assessments should be built on current empirical work in the various developmental domains. This report focuses on the domains of language and literacy, two areas of major concern for the Federal Head Start program and for which there is an abundance of current research. This body of knowledge provides many examples illustrating how an emphasis on process rather than product can be vital for improving the quality of education. For example, although vocabulary is centrally important and psychometrically adequate tests of early vocabulary exist, these tests do not measure essential aspects of word learning that have been identified as predictive of later language and reading success in early language learning literature. Our case study of language and literacy illustrates how today’s developmental science offers a new knowledge that can be strategically incorporated in assessments for empirically valid testing of children’s competencies. The same argument for “empirically valid” and evidence-based assessments applies to other domains of cognitive growth and to socio-emotional development. The future of preschool assessment would be well served by attention to primary research that focuses on the processes of learning. In this report, we also suggest that one possible avenue for progress in assessment would center on integrative and dynamic assessment techniques that would comprehensively capture the nature of children’s learning, minimize validity concerns related to context and culture, and evaluate how competencies in different developmental domains interact for optimal learning. To bridge the gap between science and policy, developmental scientists and test developers are urged to work together to create innovative ways to chart the developmental processes that support learning and progress toward social maturity in ways designed to ensure that research findings are continuously reflected in current assessments.

Agrammatism as a variable phenomenon

Abstract With a group of 11 Dutch agrammatic speakers, the studies on production and comprehension of word order by Saffran et al. (1980) and Schwartz et al. (1980) were replicated. We found a pattern of errors that was qualitatively the same as observed by these authors. However, the absolute number of errors was much lower: as a group our agrammatics performed highly above chance. In a second study, we asked seven patients to order various types of sentences in which the position of the verb varied. Again the level of performance was highly above chance. There was no effect of sentence type with respect to verb position (VSO or SOV). Another effect of sentence type, however, was apparent. If the position of the verb could be determined by processing a cue that was within the clause to be ordered, the sentences elicited few errors. Sentences with out-of-clause cues were much more difficult. It seems that there is variability, both between patients and between sentences. A series of possible accounts of t...

The influence of reward on comprehension testing of 2-year-old children

A procedure was devised in which a reward was hidden under the stimulus picture representing the correct answer to a comprehension task. Both accuracy and test-retest reliability of the responses of 34 2-yr-old children were measured. Eight items tested comprehension of plural allomorphs /s/ and /z/, and eight evaluated the comprehension of word order in reversible subject-verb-object active sentences. The effects of the rewarded search procedure varied, depending on sex and the language structure that was tested. In those cases where the procedure significantly affected responses, the difference was in the direction of improved accuracy and reliability.

Comprehension and Production of Word Order in Stage I

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.

Process in Reversible Sentences Comprehension in Aphasics

In the previous papers we found that aphasic patients used several sentence comprehension strategies. They understand sentences either, 1) from the semantic selective restrictions of lexicon, 2) on the basis of its word order in surface structure. (Word Order Comprehension strategy), or 3) by decoding its particles (Particle Comprehension strategy) . In this paper we discussed the following : First, in the Word Order Comprehension strategy, are “semantic relations in deep structures” or “grammatical categories” given to noun phrases according to the order of words? Second, in the Particle Comprehension strategy, how does a syntactic factor (i.e. complement construction) affects this strategy. The subjects involved were twenty-one Brocas, twenty-one Wernikes, and fourteen normals. They listened to reversible sentences and were required to point to the correct pictures. The results showed the following: First, in the Word Order Comprehension strategy, the semantic relations in deep structure were given to noun phrases according to the order of words in surface strucure. In addition, some of subjects with aphasia found word order from an auditory cue of particles and applied this strategy only to standard word order sentences. Second, in the Particle Comprehension strategy, decoding of syntactic structures occured. Additionally, sentences with complement constructions were more difficult to comprehend than those without complement constructions Incidentally, there was no qualitative difference between Brocas and Wernikes using the same trategies. However, Brocas scored better than Wernikes in the sentence comprehension tasks.

Children's Comprehension of Word Order: A Developmental Investigation

LEMPERT, HENRIETTA, and KINSBOURNE, MARCEL. Children's Comprehension of Word Order: A Developmental Investigation. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1978, 49, 1235-1238. 54 children ages 3-8 to 6-9 acted out the meaning of reversible active, cleft, passive, and inverted cleft sentences. Younger children performed comparably on passives and inverted clefts, whereas 5and 6-year-olds interpreted more passives correctly than inverted clefts. This outcome reflects disproportionate improvement on passives with age. A number of different response patterns were observed among the younger children.

Children's Comprehension of Word Order: A Developmental Investigation

Children's Comprehension of Word Order: A Developmental Investigation

Development of the use of word order in comprehension

Thirty-three children aged between 19 and 38 months were presented with six reversible active and six reversible passive sentences and were required to act them out. For each child, mean length of utterance was calculated from a sample of spontaneous speech. Mean length of utterance was a more consistent predictor of performance than chronological age. Seven children with a mean length of utterance between 1.0 and 1.5 morphemes per utterance were unable to use the word order information in either type of sentence for comprehension. More developed children could comprehend reversible active sentences but not reversible passives. Children with a mean length of utterance between 3.0 and 3.5 morphemes per utterance systematically reversed the meaning of the reversible passives. The results are discussed in relation to previous studies of word order comprehension and studies of word order in production.