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Comparative?</title></head><body>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Does anyone know when children normally
learn the -er (comparative) suffix in English, also the 'more +
Adjective' alternate? What about children learning other languages?
Supposedly, if they can't seriate until concrete operations, they
would presumably not understand the comparative, but of course they
might still utter it, and just use it to choose between pairs of
objects. What actually happens?<br>
<br>
Thanks!<br>
<br>
Peyton Todd</blockquote>
<div><br></div>
<div>Dear Peyton,</div>
<div><font face="Times New Roman" size="+1" color="#000000"><br>
</font><font face="Palatino" size="+2" color="#000000">There has been
considerable work on the acquisition of comparatives. In my own
view, one cannot look at the acquisition of<i> -er</i> without also
looking at the acquisition of<i> more</i>, of<i> -est</i>, of<i> too
X</i>, of<i> very X</i>, and of<i> much</i> and<i> many</i>. The
acquisition of each is intertwined with the acquisition of the
others.<br>
<br>
The acquisition of these forms appears to follow a route something
like the following:<br>
<br>
a. Some early uses (usually emerging by 3 or 3 1/2 years of age)
of many of these forms. Those early uses appear to be picked up
in prototypical contexts and to be used sometimes appropriately,
sometimes inappropriately (e.g., using<i> A-er, A-est,</i> and<i> too
A</i> sometimes as if they mean "A" or "very A").
Intensification appears to be a meaning that is "available"
to children early on and to be used by children extensively across
these structures and beyond--e.g., with reduplication.<br>
<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>During this time, if
children use a standard marker with a given construct, they often use
an inappropriate form, saying, e.g., "bigger as her",
"bigger from her", "bigger like her",
"biggest than him", "big than her", and so
forth.</font><br>
<font face="Palatino" size="+2" color="#000000"></font></div>
<div><font face="Palatino" size="+2"
color="#000000"><x-tab>
</x-tab>Also, as you suggest, one has to be very inventive in how to
get at children's understanding of these forms if one wants to look at
that experimentally. The problem is that many of the meanings
apply in exactly the same contexts, so one can't really tell if the
child thinks the linguistic form means "A-er", "very
A", "the A-est", even "A", and so
forth.</font></div>
<div><font face="Palatino" size="+2" color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Palatino" size="+2" color="#000000">b. Some
differences in meaning appear to be sorted out by around 4 1/2 years
of age. By this time, children seem to know--or have
consolidated--that<i> A-er</i> entails a comparison of two things, and
they seem to have sorted out that the standard of comparison is
expressed with<i> than</i>. </font></div>
<div><font face="Palatino" size="+2" color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Palatino" size="+2" color="#000000">As you suggest,
there have been some studies examining the development of the correct
understanding of the comparative in relation to the development of
seriation.<br>
<br>
c. I don't think the story ends there, however. Children
still have much to sort out beyond this age. The syntax of the
constructions in English is quite complex. Children have to
figure out why one can say, e.g., "5 more bites", but
not "5 more delicious" (I am presently working on an
analysis of spontaneous errors involving a wide array of these
structures, and children often say things like "I'm 5 so
happy!")<br>
<br>
You can find more of my own thoughts on these matters in the
following:</font><br>
<font face="Palatino" size="+2" color="#000000"></font></div>
<div><font face="Palatino" size="+2" color="#000000">Gathercole,
Virginia C. 1985. More and more and more about<i>
more</i>. <i> Journal of Experimental Child Psychology</i> 39.
73-104.</font></div>
<div><font face="Palatino" size="+2" color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Palatino" size="+2" color="#000000">Gathercole,
Virginia C. 1986. Evaluating competing linguistic theories
with child language data: The case of the mass-count distinction.<i>
Linguistics and Philosophy</i> 9. 151-190.</font></div>
<div><font face="Palatino" size="+2" color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Palatino" size="+2" color="#000000">Gathercole,
Virginia C. 1985. "He has too much hard
questions": The acquisition of the linguistic mass--count
distinction in<i> much</i> and<i> many</i>.<i> Journal of Child
Language</i> 12, 395--415. </font></div>
<div><font face="Palatino" size="+2" color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Palatino" size="+2" color="#000000">Gathercole,
Virginia C. 1983. Haphazard examples, prototype theory,
and the acquisition of comparatives. <i> First Language</i> 4.
169-196.</font></div>
<div><font face="Palatino" size="+2" color="#000000"><br>
Gathercole, Virginia C. 1979. Birdies like birdseed the
bester than buns: A study of relational comparatives and their
acquisition. PhD dissertation, University of Kansas.</font><br>
<font face="Palatino" size="+2" color="#000000"></font></div>
<div><font face="Palatino" size="+2" color="#000000">Gathercole,
Virginia C. 1979. The acquisition of<i> more</i> and<i>
less</i>: A critical review. In G. Gathercole & K. Godden
(eds.),<i> Kansas Papers in Linguistics</i>, vol. 4, no. 2.
99-128.</font></div>
<div><font face="Palatino" size="+2" color="#000000"><br>
</font><br>
</div>
<div>Best,</div>
<div>Ginny</div>
<div><br></div>
<x-sigsep><pre>--
</pre></x-sigsep>
<div><font color="#000000"><br>
Virginia C. Mueller Gathercole,
Ph.D. <span
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