acquisition of opposition

[Kristina De Korsak]

Dear all,
This is not the answer to the query either, but may be of interest as  
well. This article explores the possibility of semantic universals  
(nearly all of which are opposites such as good/bad, big/small).

Wierzbicka,A. (2005). Universal human concepts as a tool for  
exploring bilingual lives. International Journal of Bilingualism.  
Vol, 9, number 1, 7-26. Kingston Press Ltd.

Best wishes,
Kristia de Korsak

Le 15 janv. 07 à 06:50, Barbara Zurer Pearson a écrit :

> Dear Lesley,
>
> This is not the answer to your query, but you (or someone who has  
> an answer for you closer to your topic) might be interested in the  
> Semantics section of the DELV (Diagnostic Evaluation of Linguistic  
> Variation), by Seymour, Roeper & de Villiers (2005).  There is a  
> subtest which is based on children's developing capacity to make a  
> more and more fine-tuned contrast set (elicited by a picture):   
> "he's not walking, he's _____"(crawling); then about the same  
> picture, "he's not going UP the steps, he's going _______"(down)  
> the steps; or another picture:  she's not sitting ON the chair,  
> she's sitting ______ (under) the chair, etc.
>
> The test is for 4 to 9 year olds--and the skill develops over that  
> age range (and no doubt, before that range).  One could use the  
> test to explore the question--or Kristen Asplin (with Jill de  
> Villiers, Laura Wagner, and me) is looking at the pilot data on  
> over a 1000 children, with no conclusions yet.  Stay tuned!
>
> Best,
> Barbara Pearson
>
>
> On Jan 15, 2007, at 8:23 AM, Alison Crutchley wrote:
>
>>
>> Dear all
>>
>> I'm posting the request below on behalf of my English Language
>> colleague, Lesley Jeffries (l.jeffries at hud.ac.uk). She hasn't been  
>> able
>> to find any work on the acquisition of opposites and I felt sure  
>> that if
>> anyone knew, it would be the info-childes list! Many thanks for any
>> ideas. Alison
>>
>> "I am writing a book on unconventional opposites as created in
>> particular contexts - such as the news, poetry etc., and I keep  
>> coming
>> up against the question of to what extent the conventional opposites
>> (good-bad, tall-short etc) are in some sense deeply psychologically
>> embedded. I also have only anecdotal evidence to point to the  
>> assumption
>> that children have to be taught about opposites - rather than the  
>> whole
>> idea of opposites being something innate. Whilst I have done some
>> library searching, I have not been able to turn up anything  
>> explicitly
>> investigating either the process or chronology of opposition- 
>> acquisition
>> or the cognitive-related issues such as whether there is a stage at
>> which opposites may more easily be acquired. Is anybody able to  
>> point me
>> towards research of this kind? If not, perhaps there is a project out
>> there waiting to be done?
>>
>> Thanks!
>> Lesley"
>>
>>
>>
> *****************************************
> Barbara Zurer Pearson, Ph.D
> Research Associate, Project Manager
> University of Massachusetts
> Amherst MA 01003
>
> Tel: 413.545.5023
>
> bpearson at research.umass.edu
> http://www.umass.edu/aae/
>

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