| Автор | PAPPAS, ATHINA |
| Автор | GELMAN, SUSAN A. |
| Дата выпуска | 1998 |
| dc.description | Generic noun phrases (e.g. Tigers are fierce) are of interest for their semantic properties: they capture ‘essential’ properties, are timeless, and are context-free. The present study examines use of generic noun phrases by preschool children and their mothers. Mother–child pairs were videotaped while looking through a book of animal pictures. Each page depicted either a single instance of a particular category (e.g. one crab) or multiple instances of a particular category (e.g. many crabs). The results indicated a striking difference in how generics vs. non-generics were distributed, both in the speech of mothers and in the speech of preschool children. Whereas the form of non-generic noun phrases was closely linked to the structure of the page (i.e. singular noun phrases were used more often when a single instance was presented; plural noun phrases were used more often when multiple instances were presented), the form of generic noun phrases was independent of the information depicted (e.g. plural noun phrases were as frequent when only one instance was presented as when multiple instances were presented). We interpret the data as providing evidence that generic noun phrases differ in their semantics and conceptual organization from non-generic noun phrases, both in the input to young children and in childrenʼs own speech. Thus, this simple linguistic device may provide input to, and a reflection of, childrenʼs early developing notion of ‘kinds’. |
| Издатель | Cambridge University Press |
| Название | Generic noun phrases in mother–child conversations This study was originally conducted by the first author as an honours thesis submitted to the Department of Linguistics, University of Michigan. We thank the mothers and children who participated in the study, and Ryan Kettler and Simone Nguyen for their able research assistance. Preparation of the manuscript was supported by NSF Grant 91-0034 and a J. S. Guggenheim Fellowship to the second author. |
| Electronic ISSN | 1469-7602 |
| Print ISSN | 0305-0009 |
| Журнал | Journal of Child Language |
| Том | 25 |
| Первая страница | 19 |
| Последняя страница | 33 |
| Аффилиация | PAPPAS ATHINA; Wayne State University |
| Аффилиация | GELMAN SUSAN A.; University of Michigan; University of Michigan |
| Выпуск | 1 |
