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Adjective order as a word learning cue in preschool-aged children
Beyer, Arlen
Beyer, Arlen
Abstract
This study examined the ability of children aged 4-6 to use adjective order to syntactically bootstrap meaning onto novel adjectives. Following the work of Beyer et al 2024, this study presented to children illustrations of pillows and accompanying strings of novel adjectives embedded into sentences. Test trials were given as a forced-choice task between two options of visual stimuli. Children did not succeed at the task, performing at chance across both trials in the study. This indicates that children were unable to bootstrap adjective meaning based solely on adjective order in the context of the study, which is in sharp contrast with their abilities to bootstrap meaning based on other syntactic structures, such as transitivity. These results lend support to the theory that adjective order is not acquired by children until a later point in time. This may be due to adjective order constraints being tied to a concept that younger children cannot utilize yet, such as subjectivity, which is not learned until roughly age 9.
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2024-05-01
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Linguistics