TY - JOUR
T1 - A developmental shift from similar to language-specific strategies in verb acquisition
T2 - A comparison of English, Spanish, and Japanese
AU - Maguire, Mandy J.
AU - Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy
AU - Golinkoff, Roberta Michnick
AU - Imai, Mutsumi
AU - Haryu, Etsuko
AU - Vanegas, Sandra
AU - Okada, Hiroyuki
AU - Pulverman, Rachel
AU - Sanchez-Davis, Brenda
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was a part of the first author’s dissertation at Temple University. Funding for this research was provided by new faculty funds from the University of Texas, Dallas, to the first author, Ministry of Education grant-in-aid for Scientific Research (# 15300088 to Imai and # 17330139 to Haryu), and NICHD grant HD0501990182 and NSF grants SBR0642632 and SBR9615391 awarded to the second and third authors. Portions of these findings were presented at the Society for Research in Child Development, April, 2005. We also thank Shannon Pruden and Meredith Meyer for help in the data collection and analysis.
PY - 2010/3
Y1 - 2010/3
N2 - The world's languages draw on a common set of event components for their verb systems. Yet, these components are differentially distributed across languages. At what age do children begin to use language-specific patterns to narrow possible verb meanings? English-, Japanese-, and Spanish-speaking adults, toddlers, and preschoolers were shown videos of an animated star performing a novel manner along a novel path paired with a language-appropriate nonsense verb. They were then asked to extend that verb to either the same manner or the same path as in training. Across languages, toddlers (2- and 2.5-year-olds) revealed a significant preference for interpreting the verb as a path verb. In preschool (3- and 5-year-olds) and adulthood, the participants displayed language-specific patterns of verb construal. These findings illuminate the way in which verb construal comes to reflect the properties of the input language.
AB - The world's languages draw on a common set of event components for their verb systems. Yet, these components are differentially distributed across languages. At what age do children begin to use language-specific patterns to narrow possible verb meanings? English-, Japanese-, and Spanish-speaking adults, toddlers, and preschoolers were shown videos of an animated star performing a novel manner along a novel path paired with a language-appropriate nonsense verb. They were then asked to extend that verb to either the same manner or the same path as in training. Across languages, toddlers (2- and 2.5-year-olds) revealed a significant preference for interpreting the verb as a path verb. In preschool (3- and 5-year-olds) and adulthood, the participants displayed language-specific patterns of verb construal. These findings illuminate the way in which verb construal comes to reflect the properties of the input language.
KW - Adults
KW - Language acquisition
KW - Language typology
KW - Preschoolers
KW - Toddlers
KW - Verb learning
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U2 - 10.1016/j.cognition.2009.10.002
DO - 10.1016/j.cognition.2009.10.002
M3 - Article
C2 - 19897183
AN - SCOPUS:76349092697
VL - 114
SP - 299
EP - 319
JO - Cognition
JF - Cognition
SN - 0010-0277
IS - 3
ER -