Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-4hhp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-03T16:39:13.134Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Adjective ordering in the language of young children: an experimental investigation*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Meredith Martin Richards
Meredith Martin Richards
Affiliation:
University of Louisville
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Young children described objects which differed on three simultaneous dimensions, using adjective combinations appropriate to the dimensions. Three- and 6-year-olds displayed significant ordering preferences for these adjectives, which agreed with the ordering preferences of adults in the same task. Four- and 5-year-olds were less constrained in their adjective ordering, although descriptive competence with the adjectives improved greatly at age five. In a comprehension task, the children located the objects from verbal descriptions which used the same adjectives. Neither latency nor accuracy of comprehension was affected by the order of adjectives in the description at any age. The children also reproduced the adjectives in different orders; the few errors which occurred were unrelated to adjective order.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , June 1979 , pp. 253 - 277
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

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.)

References

REFERENCES

Annear, S. S. (1964). The ordering of prenominal modifiers in English. Project on Linguistic Analysis Report 8, Ohio State University Research Foundation, Columbus, Ohio.Google Scholar
Bacharach, V. R. & Maisto, A. A. (1974). Prenominal adjective order and visual discrimination in children. JExpChPsychol 17. 495–506.Google Scholar
Bever, T. (1970). The cognitive basis for linguistic structures. In Hayes, J. R. (ed.), Cognition and the development of language. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Bever, T. (1974). The interaction of perception and linguistic structures: a preliminary investigation of neo-functionalism. In Sebeok, T. A. (ed.), Current trends in linguistics. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Brewer, W. & Stone, J. B. (1975). Acquisition of spatial antonym pairs. JExpChPsychol 19. 299–307.Google Scholar
Bolinger, D. L. (1952). Linear modification. PMLA 157. 1117–44.Google Scholar
Bolinger, D. L. (1967). Adjectives in English: attribution and predication. Lingua 18. 1–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, R. (1973). A first language: the early stages. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Clark, E. V. (1972). On the child's acquisition of antonyms in two semantic fields. JVLVB 11. 750–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, E. V. (1973). What's in a word ? On the child's acquisition of semantics in his first language. In Moore, T. (ed.), Cognitive development and the acquisition of language. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Crystal, D. (1971). Linguistics. Baltimore: Penguin.Google Scholar
Danks, J. H. & Glucksberg, S. (1971). Psychological scaling of adjective orders. JVLVB 10. 63–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Danks, J. H. & Schwenk, M. A. (1972). Prenominal adjective order and communication context. JVLVB 11. 183–7.Google Scholar
Danks, J. H. (1974). Comprehension of prenominal adjective orders. Memory and Cognition 2 34–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Day, M. C. (1975). Developmental trends in visual scanning. In Reese, H. W. (ed.), Advances in child development and behavior 10. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Donaldson, M. & Wales, R. J. (1970). On the acquisition of some relational terms. In Hayes, J. R. (ed.), Cognition and the development of language. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Eilers, E. R., Oller, D. K. & Ellington, J. (1974). The acquisition of word-meaning for dimensional adjectives: the long and short of it. JChLang 1. 195–204.Google Scholar
Freedle, R. & Hall, W. S. (1973). Effects of prenominal adjective ordering on children's latencies and errors in an immediate sentence recall task. Research Bulletin 73–19. Educational Testing Service, Princeton, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K. & Hasan, R. (1976). Cohesion in English. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Hill, A. A. (1958). Introduction to linguistic structures. New York: Harcourt, Brace.Google Scholar
Jespersen, O. (1964). Essentials of English grammar. University of Alabama: Alabama Linguistic and Philological Series 1.Google Scholar
Klatzky, R. L., Clark, E. V. & Macken, M. (1973). Asymmetries in the acquisition of polar adjectives: linguistic or conceptual? JExpChPsychol 16. 32–46.Google Scholar
Kuczaj, S. A. & Maratsos, M. P. (1975). What children can say before they will. MPQ 21. 89–111.Google Scholar
Lumsden, E. A. & Poteat, B. (1968). The salience of the verbal dimension in the concept of ‘bigger’ in 5 and 6 year-olds. JVLVB 7. 404–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maratsos, M. P. (1973). Decrease in the understanding of the word ‘big’ in preschool children. ChDev 44. 747–52.Google Scholar
Martin, J. E. (1969 a). Semantic determinants of preferred adjective order. JVLVB 8. 697–704.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, J. E. (1969 b). Some competence-process relationships in noun phrases with prenominal and postnominal adjectives. JVLVB 8. 471–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, J. E. (1970). Adjective order and juncture. JVLVB 9. 379–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, J. E. & Ferb, T. E. (1973). Contextual factors in preferred adjective ordering. Lingua 32. 75–81.Google Scholar
Martin, J. E. & Molfese, D. L. (1972). Preferred adjective ordering in very young children. JVLVB 11. 287–92.Google Scholar
Olson, D. R. (1972). Language use for communicating, instructing, and thinking. In Freedle, R. O. & Carroll, J. B. (eds), Language comprehension and the acquisition of knowledge. Washington, D.C.: Winston.Google Scholar
Osgood, C. E., Suci, G. & Tannenbaum, P. (1957). The measurement of meaning. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Osgood, C. E. & Hoosain, R. (forthcoming). Pollyanna II. Center for Comparative Psycholinguistics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Google Scholar
Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G. & Svartvik, J. (1972). A grammar of contemporary English. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Richards, M. M. (1975). The pragmatic communication rule of adjective ordering: a critique. AmJPsychol 88. 201–15.Google Scholar
Richards, M. M. (1977). Ordering preferences for congruent and incongruent English adjectives in attributive and predicative contexts. JVLVB 16. 489–503.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwenk, M. A. & Danks, J. H. (1974). A developmental study of the pragmatic communication rule for prenominal adjective ordering. Memory and Cognition 2. 149–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Strang, B. M. H. (1968). Modern English structure. New York: St Martin's.Google Scholar
Townsend, D. J. (1976). Do children interpret ‘marked’ comparative adjectives as their opposites? JChLang 3. 385–96.Google Scholar
Vendler, Z. (1968). Adjectives and nominalizations. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Wales, R. J. & Campbell, R. (1970). On the development of comparison and the comparison of development. In d'Arcais, G. B. Flores & Levelt, W. J. M. (eds), Advances in psycholinguistics. Amsterdam: North-Holland.Google Scholar
Whorf, B. L. (1959). Language, thought and reality. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T.Google Scholar