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The word order myth*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Richard M. Weist
Richard M. Weist
Affiliation:
State University of New York and Adam Mickiewicz University
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Abstract

The purpose of this research was to investigate the function of word order, inflections and discourse context in the sentence comprehension process. Ten 2; 6 and ten 3; 6 Polish children acted out sentences with toys. The target sentences were either inflected or uninflected, and given inflectional information sentences were ordered SVO or OVS. Context sentences established given information which was in initial or final position in the target sentences. When inflectional information was available, all the children used it effectively with very little interference from OVS and new–given arrangements. In spite of the fact that word order distributes given and new information in adult Polish, children could utilize word order to recover semantic functions with uninflected sentence problems.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , February 1983 , pp. 97 - 106
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

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Footnotes

[*]

This research was supported by the SUNY Research Foundation, the Fulbright Program, and the Polish Academy of Science. The following research assistants tested and recorded the children: Hanna Wysocka, Katarzyna Witkowska-Stadnik, Ewa Buczowska, Emilia Konieczna, Ewa Domżalska, Zofia Baranowska, Katarzyna Niezabitowska-Handke, and Jolanta Stawicka. Address for correspondence: Department of Psychology, State University of New York, College at Fredonia, Fredonia, New York 14063.

References

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