The acquisition of the meanings of modality in children aged eight and twelve

Abstract

Little is known about children's acquisition of modality. It seems clear that at the age of five, when they are said to be linguistically competent, children have not mastered the adult system of modal meaning. This paper describes research which tests children's understanding of modal meaning at the ages of eight and twelve. The results of these tests are compared with the results of the same test on adult informants. The research uses the card-sorting method devised by Miller (1971) to investigate semantic similarities and dissimilarities; cluster analysis of the data reveals the underlying patterns. My tests revealed that eight-year-old children have only a rudimentary system of modal meaning, and even by the age of twelve a child's system will not be isomorphic with the adult system.

Children's understanding of epistemic modals

“…Coates (1988) observed that a linguistically competent five-year-old still does not have an adult's system of modals; a cultivation of the logical component may well be critical to progress with modals. In the test of relative force in Experiment i, five-year-olds' performance generally revealed that they appreciate distinctions in relative force among the terms is, has to and might.…”

“…For example, in an investigation of modal comprehension Coates (1988) showed that eight-and twelve-year-old children employ the modal might in an adult-like manner. One is that recorded modal uses may reflect the situations in which children tend to find themselves and not necessarily their progressive mastery of the studied terms.…”

Deontic reasoning reviewed: psychological questions, empirical findings, and current theories

“…Coates (1988) found that even by the age of 12, children's categorization of modal terms was not yet isomorphic with that of adults.…”

Deontic norms, deontic reasoning, and deontic conditionals

“…Finally, from developmental studies we know that deontic capabilities are not available ''in one block'' at a certain age as the evolutionary view might suggest. Instead, the full comprehension of the deontic system is the result of language acquisition processes that take several years (e.g., Bascelli & Barbieri, 2002;Hirst & Weil, 1982) and is not yet finished at the age of twelve (Coates, 1988).…”