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A cross-linguistic perspective on the development of temporal systems*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Richard M. Weist ,
Hanna Wysocka  and
Paula Lyytinen
Richard M. Weist*
Affiliation:
State University of New York College at Fredonia
Hanna Wysocka
Affiliation:
Adam Mickiewicz University
Paula Lyytinen
Affiliation:
University of Jyväskylä
*
Department of Psychology, State University of New York, Fredonia, NY, 14063, USA
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Abstract

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the development of temporal location within a cross-linguistic experimental design. The research focused on the transition from a temporal system based on absolute temporal relations involving speech time and event time to a more complex system involving relative temporal relationships and reference time. A comprehension test was constructed with problems which were diagnostic of two salient distinctions within each of three temporal systems. The procedure was based on a two-choice sentence–picture matching task. The children who participated were from Poland, the USA and Finland, and there were 12 children at each of the following age levels: 2;6, 3;6, 4;6, 5;6, and 6;6. The Polish and American children solved problems requiring absolute temporal location at 2;6, and the older children eventually solved most of the problems requiring relative location. The Finnish children followed a different pattern taking longer to comprehend both types of problems. A second experiment confirmed the Finnish pattern of development. The results of the comprehension test were compared to observations of conversational and narrative discourse which were the product of two elicitation procedures. The research demonstrates the way in which conceptual development places a universal constraint on the developmental process and how the specific properties of individual languages also have an effect.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , February 1991 , pp. 67 - 92
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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Footnotes

*

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation grant No. BNS-8617776, the Polish Academy of Science, the Finnish Academy of Science, and the American Academy of Science. A brief report was presented at the Fourth International Congress for the Study of Child Language, Lund, Sweden in July 1987. We would like to thank the following people for their assistance in testing the children: Ewa Buczowska, Merja Jokivuori, and Cindy Mayhew. We would like to thank our Finnish consultant Matti Leiwo, our Polish consultants Jerzy Bariczerowski and Maria Graia, and our trilingual consultant Aleksandra Kaczmarek. We are also indebted to an anonymous reviewer for a number of constructive comments.

References

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