The German Perfekt

This study investigated the changing functions of evaluative devices in children's narratives. The evaluative devices included (a) references to ‘frames of mind’, particularly to emotions, (b) character speech, (c) ‘hedges’, (d) negative qualifiers, and (e) causal connectors. Narratives were elicited from a 24-picture story book. The subjects were three groups of native English-speaking Americans (12 per group): five- and nine-year-old children and college undergraduate students. A quantitative comparison revealed that (i) adults used evaluative devices three times as often as five-year-olds, and two-and-a-half times as often as the nine-year-old children; (ii) adults used significantly more references to ‘frames of mind’ and ‘hedges’ than the children; and (iii) whereas five-year-olds used each evaluative type equally often, nine-year-olds and adults used references to ‘frames of mind’ significantly more than the other four evaluation types. A second analysis, focusing specifically on the discourse functions of references to ‘frames of mind’ revealed that, early on, this particular device is used to express a local evaluative perspective on particular events, while with increasing age it is used to signal the hierarchial organization of the story events. These findings are discussed with regard to two non-linguistic developmental achievements, the formation of event schemas and the formation of a theory of mind.

show abstract

scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.

Contact Info

hi@scite.ai

10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614

Henderson, NV 89052, USA

Blog Terms and Conditions API Terms Privacy Policy Contact Cookie Preferences Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

Made with 💙 for researchers

Part of the Research Solutions Family.

The German Perfekt

Abstract: We not only use tenses to represent, but also to construct, i.e., we give instructions how to imagine. However, this we cannot describe without psychology" (Latzel 1974b: 323; translation and emphasis my own).

Cited by 14 publications

References 11 publications

The audience shaping of text-strategies in spoken discourse: Adults vs. children addresses and the case of Modern Greek

The audience shaping of text-strategies in spoken discourse: Adults vs. children addresses and the case of Modern Greek

Actions, events, scenes, plots and the drama. Language and the constitution of part-whole relationships

On the ability to provide evaluative comments: further explorations of children's narrative competencies

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About