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Comprehension of two-word instructions by children in the one-word stage*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Jacqueline Sachs  and
Lynn Truswell
Jacqueline Sachs
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut
Lynn Truswell
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut
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Abstract

Twelve one-word-stage children (aged 1; 4 to 2; 0) were given minimally contrasting two-word instructions, e.g. kiss duck, kiss car, bang duck and bang car. Since non-linguistic cues were eliminated, comprehension involved making non-syntactic inferences from the word combinations. The children could respond correctly to some of the instructions, and even carried out some unfamiliar activities such as tickle book. Observations of mother–child interactions revealed play routines that may help the child learn to understand more than one word at a time.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , February 1978 , pp. 17 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

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Footnotes

[*]

The research was supported in part by a grant from the University of Connecticut Research Foundation. The authors wish to thank Diane Brackett for her assistance, and to acknowledge the cooperation of the mothers who allowed us to observe their children. The manuscript was prepared while the first author was on sabbatical at Stanford University, and she thanks the members of the Departments of Psychology and Linguistics for their hospitality. Address reprint requests to: Jacqueline Sachs, Department of Speech, U-85, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06268.

References

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