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Twenty-three-month-old children have a grammatical category of noun

Publication ,  Journal Article
Tomasello, M; Olguin, R
Published in: Cognitive Development
January 1, 1993

This study investigated experimentally the nature and development of children's early productivity with nouns, both in verb-argument structure and with plural morphology. Eight 20- to 26-month-old boys and girls were, in the context of playing a game over a several week period, exposed to four novel nouns, modeled in experimentally controlled ways. The question was whether, when, and in what ways the children would become productive with these nouns in their spontaneous speech, going beyond the particular linguistic forms they had heard. In terms of verb-argument structure, 7 of the 8 children used their nouns in productive argument roles, that is, in semantic roles they had not heard them used in. Five of the 8 children used the plural morpheme productively with the novel nouns as well. Implications for theories of grammatical category formation are discussed. © 1993, Ablex Publishing Corporation, 355 Chestnut Street, Norwood, New Jersey 07648. All rights reserved.

Duke Scholars

Published In

Cognitive Development

DOI

ISSN

0885-2014

Publication Date

January 1, 1993

Volume

8

Issue

4

Start / End Page

451 / 464

Related Subject Headings

  • Developmental & Child Psychology
  • 5205 Social and personality psychology
  • 5204 Cognitive and computational psychology
  • 5201 Applied and developmental psychology
  • 1702 Cognitive Sciences
  • 1701 Psychology
  • 0801 Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing
 

Citation

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Tomasello, M., & Olguin, R. (1993). Twenty-three-month-old children have a grammatical category of noun. Cognitive Development, 8(4), 451–464. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0885-2014(05)80004-8
Tomasello, M., and R. Olguin. “Twenty-three-month-old children have a grammatical category of noun.” Cognitive Development 8, no. 4 (January 1, 1993): 451–64. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0885-2014(05)80004-8.
Tomasello M, Olguin R. Twenty-three-month-old children have a grammatical category of noun. Cognitive Development. 1993 Jan 1;8(4):451–64.
Tomasello, M., and R. Olguin. “Twenty-three-month-old children have a grammatical category of noun.” Cognitive Development, vol. 8, no. 4, Jan. 1993, pp. 451–64. Scopus, doi:10.1016/S0885-2014(05)80004-8.
Tomasello M, Olguin R. Twenty-three-month-old children have a grammatical category of noun. Cognitive Development. 1993 Jan 1;8(4):451–464.
Journal cover image

Published In

Cognitive Development

DOI

ISSN

0885-2014

Publication Date

January 1, 1993

Volume

8

Issue

4

Start / End Page

451 / 464

Related Subject Headings

  • Developmental & Child Psychology
  • 5205 Social and personality psychology
  • 5204 Cognitive and computational psychology
  • 5201 Applied and developmental psychology
  • 1702 Cognitive Sciences
  • 1701 Psychology
  • 0801 Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing