Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T10:45:42.878Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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

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.)

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

REFERENCES

Ames, L. B. (1946). The development of the sense of time in the young child. Journal of Genetic Psychology 68, 97–125.Google ScholarPubMed
Antinucci, F. & Miller, R. (1976). How children talk about what happened. Journal of Child Language 3, 167–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bhardwaj, M., Dietrich, R. & Noyan, C. (1988). Second language acquisition by adult immigrants: temporality (Final Report. Vol. 5). Strasbourg: European Science Foundation.Google Scholar
Bloom, L., Lahey, M., Hood, L., Lifter, K. & Fiess, K. (1980). Complex sentences: acquisition of syntactic connectives and the semantic relations they encode. Journal of Child Language 7, 235–62.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bowerman, M. (1981). Notes for Nijmegen Workshop. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Brigden, N. (1983). Towards a functional grammar of aspect in Finnish. In deGroot, C. & Tommola, H. (eds), Aspect bound. Dordrecht: FlorisGoogle Scholar
Brown, R. (1973). A first language: the early stages. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buczowska, E. (1989). The acquisition of temporal systems in English as a native language and English as a foreign language. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznán.Google Scholar
Clancy, P. M., Jacobsen, T. & Silva, N. (1976). The acquisition of conjunctions: a cross linguistic study. Papers and reports on child language development 12, 71–80, Stanford University.Google Scholar
Clark, E. V. (1970). How young children describe events in time. In Flores d'Arcais, G. B. & Levelt, W. J. M. (eds), Advances in psycholinguistics. Amsterdam: North-HollandGoogle Scholar
Clark, E. V. (1985). Acquisition of Romance, with special reference to French. In Slobin, D. I. (ed.), Cross linguistic studies of child language. Hillsdale, N.J.: ErlbaumGoogle Scholar
Coker, P. L. (1978). Syntactic and semantic factors in the acquisition of before and after. Journal of Child Language 5, 261–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Comrie, B. (1985). Tense. Cambridge: C.U.P.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cromer, R. F. (1968). The development of temporal reference during the acquisition of language. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Harvard University.Google Scholar
Cromer, R. F. (1974). The development of language and cognition: the cognition hypothesis. In Foss, B. (ed.), New perspectives in child development. Harmondsworth Middlesex: PenguinGoogle Scholar
Cromer, R. F. (1988). The cognition hypothesis revisited. In Kessel, F. S. (ed.), The development of language and language researchers. Hillsdale, N.J.: ErlbaumGoogle Scholar
deGroot, C. & Tommola, H. (1983). Aspect bound. Dordrecht: FlorisGoogle Scholar
Fillmore, C. J. (1975). Santa Cruz lectures on deixis. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Linguistic ClubGoogle Scholar
Friedman, W. J. (1982). Conventional time concepts and children's structuring of time. In Friedman, W. J. (ed.), The developmental psychology of time. New York: Academic PressGoogle Scholar
Gathercole, V. (1986). The acquisition of the present perfect: explaining differences in speech of Scottish and American children. Journal of Child Language 13, 537–60.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gopnik, A. (1984). The acquisition of gone and the development of the object concept. Journal of Child Language 11, 273–92.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heinämäki, O. (1983). Aspect in Finnish. In de Groot, C. & Tommola, H. (eds), Aspect bound. Dordrecht: FlorisGoogle Scholar
Hopper, P. J. (1979). Aspect and foregrounding in discourse. In Givon, T. (ed.), Syntax and semantics, vol. 12: Discourse and syntax. New York; Academic Press.Google Scholar
Johnston, J. R. (1985). Cognitive prerequisites: the evidence from children learning English. In Slobin, D. I. (ed.), The cross-linguistic study of language acquisition. Hillsdale, N.J.: ErlbaumGoogle Scholar
Johnston, J. R. (1988). Children's verbal representation of location. In Stiles-Davis, J., Kritchevsky, M. & Bellugi, U. (eds), Spatial cognition. Hillsdale, N.J.: ErlbaumGoogle Scholar
Kangasmaa-Minn, E. (1983). Tense, aspect, and Aktionsarten in Finno-Ugrian. In de Groot, C. & Tommola, H. (eds.), Aspect bound. Dordrecht: FlorisGoogle Scholar
Karlsson, F. (1987). Finnish grammar. Helsinki: Werner Soderstrom OsakeyhtioGoogle Scholar
Lyytinen, P. (1982). The acquisition process of Finnish morphology in 2- to 7-year-old children. Acta Psychologica Fennica IX. 112–25.Google Scholar
Markkanen, R. (1979). Tense and aspect in English and Finnish: a contrastive study. Studia Philologica Jyväskyläensia 13, Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä.Google Scholar
Meisel, J. M. (1987). Reference to past events and actions in the development of natural second language acquisition. In Pfaff, C. W. (ed.), First and second language acquisition processes. Cambridge, MA: Newbury HouseGoogle Scholar
Reichenbach, H. (1947). Symbolic logic. Berkeley, University of California.Google Scholar
Rispoli, M. & Bloom, L. (1985). Incomplete and continuing: theoretical issues in the acquisition of tense and aspect. Journal of Child Language 12, 471–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sachs, J. (1982). Talking about the there and then: the emergence of displaced reference. In Nelson, K. E. (ed.), Children's language. Vol. 4. New York: Gardner Press.Google Scholar
Slobin, D. I., (1982). Universals and particulars in the acquisition of language. In Wanner, E. & Gleitman, L. R. (eds.), Language acquisition: the state of the art. Cambridge: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Smith, C. S. (1980). The acquisition of time talk: relations between child and adult grammars. Journal of Child Language 7, 263–78.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, C. S. & Weist, R. M. (1987). On the temporal contour of child language: a reply to Rispoli & Bloom. Journal of Child Language 14, 387–92.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stephany, U. (1986). Modality. In Fletcher, P. & Garman, M. (eds), Language acquisition Cambridge: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Stojanova, J. (1987). The emergence of temporality in Bulgarian child language. Paper presented at the Fourth International Congress for the Study of Child Language. Lund, Sweden.Google Scholar
Toivainen, J. (1980). Inflectional affixes used by Finnish-speaking children aged 1–3 years. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden SeuraGoogle Scholar
Toivainen, J. (1986). Easy for the child – hard for the grammarian: observations on the function of partitive in Finnish. In Danks, J., Kurcz, I. & Shugar, G. W. (eds.), Knowledge and language. Amsterdam: North HollandGoogle Scholar
Tomasello, M. & Farrar, M. J. (1984). Cognitive bases of lexical development: object permanence and relational words. Journal of Child Language 11, 477–93.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Traugott, E. C. (1978). Spatio-temporal relations. In Greenberg, J. H. (ed.), Universals of human language. Vol. 3. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Trosborg, A. (1982). Children's comprehension of ‘before’ and ‘after’ reinvestigated. Journal of Child Language 9, 381–402.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weist, R. M. (1983). Prefix versus suffix information-processing in the comprehension of tense and aspect, Journal of Child Language 10, 85–96.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weist, R. M. (1986). Tense and aspect: temporal systems in child language. In Fletcher, P. & Garman, M. (eds.), Language acquisition: studies in first language development. Cambridge: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Weist, R. M. (1989). Time concepts in language and thought: filling the Piagetian void from two to five years. In Levin, I. & Jakay, D. (eds), Psychological time: a life-span perspective. Amsterdam: North-HollandGoogle Scholar
Weist, R. M. & Buczowska, E. (1987). The emergence of temporal adverbs in child Polish. First Language 7, 217–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weist, R. M., Kaczmarek, A. & Wysocka, J. (1989). The function of aspectual configurations in the conversational and narrative discourse of Finnish Polish and American children. Paper presented at the 10th Biennial Meeting of ISSBD, Jyväskylä, Finland.Google Scholar
Weist, R. M., Wysocka, H., Witkowska-Stadnik, K., Buczowska, E. & Konieczna, E. (1984). The defective tense hypothesis: on the emergence of tense and aspect in child Polish. Journal of Child Language 11, 347–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed