L’imparfait dans le langage de l’enfant

Abstract

RésuméPour faire référence à des événements passés ou futurs, l’enfant doit parler d’objets et de situations qui ne sont ni visibles ni audibles, mais mémorisées, imaginaires, ou désirées. L’imparfait est l’un des temps grammaticaux qui permet d’exprimer cette « déconnexion » avec l’ici et maintenant. Notre étude repose sur un suivi longitudinal de deux enfants en situation d’interactions familiales spontanées qui permet d’analyser l’usage des formes de l’imparfait par rapport au présent et au passé composé, en lien avec la déconnexion, l’aspect lexical des verbes utilisés, les situations d’emplois à la fois chez les enfants et les adultes du corpus. Les résultats de nos analyses montrent que les productions d’imparfait de l’enfant sont tardives mais qu’elles se révèlent fortement liées à la déconnexion et aux verbes d’état. Ceci différencie l’imparfait des autres temps analysés. Son usage serait la marque d’une nouvelle étape dans le développement langagier et cognitif de l’enfant.

The Subjunctive as a Model of Grammatical Complexity: An Integrative Review of Issues Based on Combined Evidence from Mental Chronometry and Neurosciences

“…On the contrary, Gudmestand and Edmonds [124], using two elicitation tasks, found 1640 occurrences of the subjunctive corresponding to 53.3% of the overall subjunctive and consequently in the learners' input. Despite this argument, we have seen that French natives begin to use the subjunctive at the age of 2 [76] and that it is stabilized at the age of 7 (sometimes even at the age of 4, as in the research reported by Bassano [77]). It has been shown by Bartning and Schlyter (2004) that learners use the subjunctive at different stages of the learning process of French.…”

“…Still, linguistic research on L1 acquisition of the French subjunctive showed that this mood is acquired at different stages of language development in children. Parisse, Pontox, and Morgenstern [76], using a spoken corpus of French (project CoLaJE) composed of oral productions of children (six children, all French natives, aged 0-7, from higher social backgrounds) reported, for example, that moods, such as the conditional and the subjunctive are produced at the age of 4, while more frequent moods, such as the present and the past indicative, are already observed in most of the two-year-old children [76]. Interestingly, the authors also found some occurrences of the subjunctive in some of the two-year-old children.…”

“…Interestingly, the authors also found some occurrences of the subjunctive in some of the two-year-old children. Based on this evidence, Parisse, Pontox, and Morgenstern [76] argue that at the age of 2 some verbal tenses can be evidenced, such as the present and the past, but also some moods, such as the imperative, conditional, and subjunctive ( [76] (p. 154)). According to their research, at the age of 4, children already have good adult-like mastery of the subjunctive.…”