Development of Abstract Grammatical Categorization in Infants

This study examined abstract syntactic categorization in infants, using the case of grammatical gender. Ninety-six French-learning 14-, 17-, 20-, and 30-month-olds completed the study. In a preferential looking procedure infants were tested on their generalized knowledge of grammatical gender involv...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Child development 2013-03, Vol.84 (2), p.617-629
Main Authors: Cyr, Marilyn, Shi, Rushen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Babies
Biological and medical sciences
Child development
Child Development - physiology
Child, Preschool
Concept Formation - physiology
Cues
Developmental psychology
EMPIRICAL ARTICLES
Experimentation
Female
Foreign Countries
France
French
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gender
Gender neutral language
Grammar
Grammatical gender
Humans
Infant
Infants
Knowledge
Language
Language Acquisition
Language Processing
Language Research
Learning
Learning - physiology
Linguistics
Male
Masculinity-Femininity
Newborn. Infant
Noun phrases
Nouns
Pairing
Phonetics
Phonology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Quebec (Montreal)
Statistical Analysis
Verbal Behavior - physiology
Verbs
Words
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Summary:This study examined abstract syntactic categorization in infants, using the case of grammatical gender. Ninety-six French-learning 14-, 17-, 20-, and 30-month-olds completed the study. In a preferential looking procedure infants were tested on their generalized knowledge of grammatical gender involving pseudonouns and gender-marking determiners. The pseudonouns were controlled to contain no phonological or acoustical cues to gender. The determiner gender feature was the only information available. During familiarization, some pseudonouns followed a masculine determiner and others a feminine determiner. Test trials presented the same pseudonouns with different determiners in correct (consistent with familiarization gender pairing) versus incorrect gender agreement. Twenty-month-olds showed emerging knowledge of gender categorization and agreement. This knowledge was robust in 30-month-olds. These findings demonstrate that abstract, productive grammatical representations are present early in acquisition.
ISSN:0009-3920
1467-8624
DOI:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01869.x