Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-nr592 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-21T21:24:36.423Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

More negative findings for positive prepositions*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

G. G. Abkarian
G. G. Abkarian
Affiliation:
Colorado State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Three- and four-year-old children were tested on their comprehension of the locative prepositions in front of, in back of, ahead of, and behind. Results demonstrated that those prepositions characterized as positive by H. Clark (1973) were, contrary to theoretical predictions, comprehended more poorly than their ostensibly negative counterparts. Discussion of the possible reasons for these findings is included.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , June 1983 , pp. 415 - 429
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

[*]

Thanks to Judith Rae Johnston, who read and commented upon an earlier draft of this paper. Address correspondence to: G. G. Abkarian, Department of Communication Disorders, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80526, U.S.A.

References

REFERENCES

Abkarian, G. G. (1982). Comprehension of deictic locatives: the object ‘behind’ it. JPsycholingRes 11. 220–45.Google Scholar
Anglin, J. (1977). Word, object and conceptual development. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Bartlett, E. (1976). Sizing things up: the acquisition of the meaning of dimensional adjectives. JChLang 3. 205–19.Google Scholar
Clark, E. (1972). On the child's acquisition of antonyms on two semantic fields. JVLVB 11. 750–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, E. (1973). What's in a word? In Moore, T. (ed.), Cognitive development and the acquisition of language. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Clark, E. (1980). Here's the top: nonlinguistic strategies in the acquisition of orientational terms. ChDev 51. 329–38.Google Scholar
Clark, E. & Garnica, O. (1974). Is he coming or going? JVLVB 13. 559–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, E. & Sengul, C. (1978). Strategies in the acquisition of deixis. JChLang 5. 457–75.Google Scholar
Clark, H. (1973). Space, time, semantics, and the child. In Moore, T. (ed.), Cognitive development and the acquisition of language. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Cox, M. V. (1979). Young children's understandings of ‘in front of’ and ‘behind’ in the placement of objects. JChLang 6. 371–4.Google ScholarPubMed
de Villiers, P. & de Villiers, J. (1974). On this, that and the other. JExpChPsych 18. 438–47.Google Scholar
Donaldson, M. & Wales, R. (1970). On the acquisition of some relational terms. In Hayes, J. (ed.), Cognition and the development of language. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Eilers, R., Oller, D. & Ellington, J. (1974). The acquisition of word meaning for dimensional adjectives. JChLang 1. 195–204.Google Scholar
Greenberg, J. (ed.) (1966). Universals of language. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T.Google Scholar
Greenfield, P. & Smith, J. (1976). The structure of communication in early language development. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Harner, L. (1976). Children's understanding of linguistic reference to past and future. JPsycholingRes 5. 65–84.Google Scholar
Harris, L. & Strommen, E. (1972). The role of front-back features in children's ‘front’, ‘back’, and ‘beside’ placements of objects. MPQ 18. 259–71.Google Scholar
Johnston, J. (1979). A study of spatial thought and expression: in back and in front. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Johnston, J. & Slobin, D. (1979). The development of locative expressions in English, Italian, Serbo-Croatian and Turkish. JChLang 6. 520–45.Google ScholarPubMed
Kucera, H. & Francis, W. (1967). Computational analysis of present-day American English. Providence: Brown University Press.Google Scholar
Kuczaj, S. & Maratsos, M. (1975). On the acquisition of front, back and side. ChDev 46. 202–10.Google Scholar
Laurendeau, M. & Pinard, A. (1970). The development of the concept of space in the child. New York: International University Press.Google Scholar
Lyons, J. (1977). Semantics Vol. 1. Cambridge: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Maratsos, M. (1973). Decrease in the understanding of the word ‘big’ in preschool children. ChDev 44. 747–52.Google Scholar
Piaget, J. & Inhelder, B. (1956). The child's conception of space. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Pufall, P. & Shaw, R. (1973). Analysis of the development of children's spatial reference systems. CogPsych 5. 151–75.Google Scholar
Sauvy, J. & Sauvy, S. (1974). The child's discovery of space. Baltimore: Penguin.Google Scholar
Townsend, D. (1976). Do children interpret ‘marked’ comparative objectives as their opposites? JChLang 3. 385–96.Google Scholar
Washington, D. & Naremore, R. (1978). Children's use of spatial prepositions in two- and three-dimensional tasks. JSHR 21. 151–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Windmiller, M. (1976). A child's conception of space as a prerequisite to his understanding of spatial locatives. GenPsychMonogr 44. 227–48.Google Scholar