On the Child's Acquisition of Semantic Structure Underlying the Wordfield of Prepositions

Abstract

Spontaneously produced prepositional phrases of 115 preschoolers, 2.7-5.11 years old and of 22 first-graders are analysed. Our main interest lies in anomalous combinations since these allow us to establish which features and selection restrictions responsible for the anomaly the children have not yet acquired. The main results are as follows: (a) the development sequence of spatial prepositions concurs with the development of spatio-geometric properties shown by Piaget. This is suggested by the distribution of frequencies of used prepositions as well as by the systematic replacements of complex by simple prepositions. (b) Temporal prepositions are much rarer than spatial ones. Only such temporal prepositions occur which are also used in a locative sense. Substitutions among prepositions indicate a still incomplete distinction between concrete-local and abstract-temporal notions. (c) Purely grammatical prepositions are acquired within a gradual process of voiding of semantic meaning.

The general validity of resulting rules and the existing interrelation between structural changes in language and cognition is dealt with in the discussion.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bierwisch, M. ( 1970). Semantics. In Lyons, J. (ed.), New Horizons in Linguistics ( Harmondsworth), 166.

Cazden, C.B. ( 1971). The hunt for the independent variables. In Huxley, R. and Ingram, E. (eds.), Language Acquisition Models and Methods ( London & New York), 41.

Clark, E.V. ( 1971). On the child's acquisition of antonyms in two semantic fields. J. verb. Learn. verb Behav. (in press).

Clark, H.H. ( 1970). The primitive nature of children's relational concepts . In Hayes, J. R. (ed.), Cognition and the Development of Language (New York), 269.

Donaldson, M. and Balfour, G. ( 1968). Less is more: a study of language comprehension in children. Brit J. Psychol., 59, 461.

Duden (1966). Grammatik der deutschen Gegenwartssprache. Grebe, P. (ed.), Der grosse Duden, Bd. 4 ( Mannheim).

Grimm, H. ( 1973). Strukturanalytische Untersuchung der Kindersprache ( Bern).

Grimm, H. and Fingerhut, W. ( 1972). Semantic Organization of German Spatial Prepositions (unpublished manuscript, Heidelberg).

Grimm, H. and Wintermantel, M. ( 1973). Uber die Semantik kindlicher Wortassoziationen (unpublished manuscript, Heidelberg).

10.

Jespersen, O. ( 1969). Language, its Nature, Development and Origin ( London).

11.

Meier, H. ( 1964). Deutsche Sprachstatistik ( Hildesheim ).

12.

Mcneill, D. ( 1970). The Acquisition of Language. The Study of Developmental Psycholinguistics (New York).

13.

Olson, D.R. ( 1970). Language and thought: aspects of a cognitive theory of semantics Psychol. Rev., 77, 257.

14.

Parisi, J. and Antinucci, F. ( 1970). Lexical competence. In Flores d'Arcais, G. B. and Levelt, W. J. M. (eds.), Advances in Psycholinguistics ( Amsterdam), 197.

15.

Slobin, D. ( 1966). Abstracts of Soviet studies in child language . In Smith F. and Miller G. A. (eds.), The Genesis of Language: a Psycholinguistic Approach (Cambridge, Mass.), 361.

16.

Slobin, D. ( 1971). Cognitive Prerequisites for the Development of Grammar (Linguistic Research, Inc., in press).

17.

Steinitz, R. ( 1969). Adverbial Syntax Studia Grammatica X ( Berlin).

18.

Stern, C. and Stern, W. ( 1965). Die Kindersprache. Eine psychologische und sprachtheoretische Untersuchung (Darmstadt).

19.

Trier, J. ( 1931). Der deutsche Wortschatz im Sinnbezirk des Verstandes. Die Geschichte eines sprachlichen Feldes (Heidelberg).

20.

Werner, H. and Kaplan, B. ( 1963). Symbol formation. An organismic-developmental approach to language and the expression of thought (New York).