Children's Imitations of Sentences Evaluated by Four Response Measures

Freedle, Roy; Keeney, Terrence J.; Smith, Nancy D.

doi:10.1037/e463442008-027

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The results of Freedle et al (1969) suggest that the time which elapses between the end of the model utterance and the beginning of the Ss' imitation may be sensitive to sentence "ungrammaticality." If the inflection on both the subject-noun and the verb was perceived and understood and, further, if the Ss considered unmarked nouns to be singular, then the unmarked plural sentences (i.e., both plural and~sentence types) would have appeared to be ungrammatical sentences.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 89%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Young Children's Imitation and Comprehension of Sentential Singularity and Plurality1,2

Keeney¹,

Smith²

1969

ETS Research Bulletin Series

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The number of the subject is marked in most third‐person sentences both in the subject‐noun (e.g., “dog/dogs”) and in the verb (e.g., “barks/bark”). The verb inflection for number is redundant with the noun inflection except in those rare instances in which the subject‐noun is not marked for number (e.g., “sheep/sheep”). Since the verb inflection for number is rarely crucial for determining the meaning of a sentence, and since number is marked in exactly the opposite manner in regularly formed verbs from the manner in which it is marked in regularly formed nouns, children might be expected to acquire the verb inflection for number relatively late in the course of language development. Sentences in which number was marked in (a) the verb only and (b) the subject‐noun and the verb were presented to a sample of 24 children 4 years of age in both imitation and comprehension tests. The results indicated that the children did not comprehend the verb inflection for number even when the noun was unmarked, making the verb inflection the only cue for number, Despite explicit training on the meaning of unmarked nouns, the children understood the unmarked subject‐noun as singular and responded to the entire sentence as if it were singular. At four years of age, the apparent number of the subject‐noun is the primary cue for sentential singularity or plurality.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…If imitation were independent of comprehension, one would expect the imitations of all three types of verbal material to be of equal quality. Further support for the contention that imitation is more than a perceptual-motor skill comes from a study by Freedle, Keeney, and Smith (1969).…”

Section: Young Children's Imitation and Comprehension Of Sentential Smentioning

confidence: 95%

Young Children's Imitation and Comprehension of Sentential Singularity and Plurality1,2

Keeney¹,

Smith²

1969

ETS Research Bulletin Series

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The results of Freedle et al (1969) The latencies were measured by two independent judges using a s t.opwat.ch and listening to the origina.l recordings of the experimental sessions played back at one-half of the initial recording speed, The two judges' times never differed by more than 0,25 sec 0 real time, The average of the t,.JO times was taken as the latency for each imitation. Each SIS median latency was calculated for each of the six sentence types.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Young Children's Imitation and Comprehension of Sentential Singularity and Plurality

Keeney

Smith

1971

Lang Speech

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The number of the subject is marked in most third-person sentences both in the subject-noun (e.g., " dog/dogs ") and in the verb (e.g., " barks/bark "). The verb inflection for number is redundant with the noun inflection except in those rare instances in which the subject-noun is not marked for number (e.g., " sheep/sheep "). Since the verb inflection for number is rarely crucial for determining the meaning of a sentence, and since number is marked in exactly the opposite manner in regularly formed verbs from the manner in which it is marked in regularly formed nouns, children might be expected to acquire the verb inflection for number relatively late in the course of language development. Sentences in which number was marked in (a) the verb only, and (b) the subject-noun and the verb were presented to a sample of 24 children 4 years of age in both imitation and comprehension tests. The results indicated that the children did not comprehend the verb inflection for number even when the noun was unmarked and the verb inflection was the only cue for number. Despite explicit training on the meaning of unmarked nouns, the children understood the unmarked subject-noun as singular and responded to the entire sentence as if it were singular. At four years of age, the apparent number of the subject-noun is the only effective cue for sentential singularity or plurality.

show abstract

Children's Imitations of Sentences Evaluated by Four Response Measures

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Young Children's Imitation and Comprehension of Sentential Singularity and Plurality1,2

Young Children's Imitation and Comprehension of Sentential Singularity and Plurality1,2

Young Children's Imitation and Comprehension of Sentential Singularity and Plurality

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About