early plural comprehension?

[Richard M. Weist]

Dear Brian,

    As I understand your message, you are ultimately interested in the 
comprehension - production lag, and you are approaching the problem 
through the singular - plural distinction because of linguistic and 
methodological transparency.

"We are hoping that such information could shed
further light on the comprehension-production lag during this
period."

    I might suggest that you can also approach this problem by 
investigating temporal and spatial reference with a similar 
methodological advantage.  Here are three references with one on the 
comprehension side of the issue and two on the production side.  I have 
added a forth reference that places this work in an integrated and 
larger context.

Weist, R.M., Atanassova, M., Wysocka, H., & Pawlak, A. (1999).  Spatial 
and temporal systems             in child language and thought: A 
cross-linguistic study.  First Language, 19, 267-312.

Weist, R. M., Pawlak, A., & Carapella, J. (2004).  Syntactic-semantic 
interface in the acquisition of verb morphology.  Journal of Child 
Language, 31, 31 - 60.

 <>Internicola, R. & Weist, R. M. (2003).  The acquisition of simple and 
complex spatial locatives in             English: A longitudinal 
investigation.  First Language, 23, 239 -248.

Weist, R. M. (2002).  Space and time in first and second language 
acquisition: A tribute to Henning Wode (pp. 79-108).  In P. Burmeister, 
T. Piske, A. Rohde (Eds.) An integrated view of language development: 
Papers in honor of Henning Wode. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier 
(WVT).

Regards,
Dick


Brian MacWhinney wrote:

> Dear Info-CHILDES,
>    During class discussion on Monday, one of my students asked
> whether there were any experiments that have told us the age at which
> a child can comprehend the plural marker.  We were discussing the
> findings of research in the picture preference task (perhaps with
> reinforcement) that have demonstrated comprehension at perhaps 12
> months.  If this paradigm can be used to see if children can
> distinguish "cat" from "dog" early on, has it also been used to see
> if children can distinguish "cat" from "cats?"
>    We were particularly interested in information on the plural
> marker, simply because it is so early in production, so semantically
> transparent, and so easily demonstrated pictorially.  However,
> evidence for the early learning of other grammatical markers would
> also be interesting. We are hoping that such information could shed
> further light on the comprehension-production lag during this
> period.  Can anyone please point us to the relevant reference?  Many
> thanks.
>
> --Brian MacWhinney, CMU


-- 
Richard M. Weist
Distinguished Professor
Department of Psychology
SUNY College at Fredonia
W337 Thompson Hall
Fredonia, NY 14063

Phone: 716-673-3896


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