early plural comprehension?]

[David Barner]

Hi all,

Susan Carey and colleagues have done several studies on the topic which 
support the idea that comprehension emerges at around 22-months (with 
production).

The studies test s-p knowledge with:

1. preferential looking (Kouider, Halberda, Wood & Carey, in press 
Language Learning and Development)
2. manual search (Barner, Thalwitz, Wood, Yang & Carey, under review; 
Wood, Kouider, Halberda & Carey, under review)

The first task finds successful use of singular-plural morpho-syntax in 
preferential looking at 24-months but not 20-months.

The second (Barner et al) finds successful non-verbal discrimination of 
singular and plural sets at 22-months, which is driven by children whose 
parents report they use plural nouns (on the MCDI). It also finds lack 
of s-p comprehension and production at 20-months.

The third study (Wood et al.) finds successful comprehension of s-p to 
guide reaching in manual search at 24- but not 20-months.

Cheers,
Dave Barner


cnarayan at umich.edu wrote:
> If I'm not mistaken, Helene Deacon (now at Dalhousie) has been looking 
> at infants' perception of plural markings on novel nouns at 18 months.
>
> -chandan
>
> Quoting Michael Tomasello <tomasello at eva.mpg.de>:
>
>> Brian,
>>
>> The youngest children to add English plural -s in a production 
>> experiment with novel verbs are, to my knowledge, 21-22 months (4 of 
>> 10 children at least once).  I know of no preferential looking 
>> experiments examining this with novel verbs.  Reference:
>>
>> Tomasello, M., Akhtar, N., & Dodson, K., Rekau, L. (1997). 
>> Differential productivity in young children's use of nouns and verbs. 
>>  Journal of Child Language, 24, 373-87.
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Mike
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
> ================================
> chandan r. narayan
> dept. of linguistics
> university of michigan
> --------------------------------
> cnarayan at umich.edu
> www-personal.umich.edu/~cnarayan
> ================================
>
>