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Children's Expressive and Receptive Knowledge of the English Regular Plural

Publication ,  Conference
Meylan, SC; Levy, RP; Bergelson, E
Published in: Proceedings for the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society: Developing a Mind: Learning in Humans, Animals, and Machines, CogSci 2020
January 1, 2020

We investigate the development of children's early grammatical knowledge using the test case of the English regular plural. Previous research points to early generalization, with children applying an abstract morphological rule to produce novel plurals well before 24 months. At the same time, children use the plural inconsistently with familiar object words, and demonstrate limited receptive knowledge of the plural in the absence of supporting linguistic features. In the first study to test knowledge of the plural within participants using a paradigm matched across comprehension and production, we conduct two experiments with n = 52 24-36-month-olds: an eyetracking task to evaluate what they understand, and a storybook task to test how they use the plural. We manipulate both novelty (novel vs. familiar object words) and phonological form (/s/ vs. /z/ plurals). We find strong, age-related evidence of productive knowledge of the plural in an expressive task, but do not find evidence of receptive knowledge in these same children.

Duke Scholars

Published In

Proceedings for the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society: Developing a Mind: Learning in Humans, Animals, and Machines, CogSci 2020

Publication Date

January 1, 2020

Start / End Page

2270 / 2276
 

Citation

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Meylan, S. C., Levy, R. P., & Bergelson, E. (2020). Children's Expressive and Receptive Knowledge of the English Regular Plural. In Proceedings for the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society: Developing a Mind: Learning in Humans, Animals, and Machines, CogSci 2020 (pp. 2270–2276).
Meylan, S. C., R. P. Levy, and E. Bergelson. “Children's Expressive and Receptive Knowledge of the English Regular Plural.” In Proceedings for the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society: Developing a Mind: Learning in Humans, Animals, and Machines, CogSci 2020, 2270–76, 2020.
Meylan SC, Levy RP, Bergelson E. Children's Expressive and Receptive Knowledge of the English Regular Plural. In: Proceedings for the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society: Developing a Mind: Learning in Humans, Animals, and Machines, CogSci 2020. 2020. p. 2270–6.
Meylan, S. C., et al. “Children's Expressive and Receptive Knowledge of the English Regular Plural.” Proceedings for the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society: Developing a Mind: Learning in Humans, Animals, and Machines, CogSci 2020, 2020, pp. 2270–76.
Meylan SC, Levy RP, Bergelson E. Children's Expressive and Receptive Knowledge of the English Regular Plural. Proceedings for the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society: Developing a Mind: Learning in Humans, Animals, and Machines, CogSci 2020. 2020. p. 2270–2276.

Published In

Proceedings for the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society: Developing a Mind: Learning in Humans, Animals, and Machines, CogSci 2020

Publication Date

January 1, 2020

Start / End Page

2270 / 2276