Developing definitions of objects and events in English and Spanish speakers

Sera, Maria D.; Reittinger, Eric L.; Pintado, Javier del Castillo

doi:10.1016/0885-2014(91)90033-a

Cited by 31 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…For example, in an investigation of Spanish verbs, Sera (1992;Sera, Reittinger, & del Castillo Pintado, 1991) found that the distinction between ser and estar maps roughly onto a distinction between inherent and accidental properties. Although English does not make the same distinction in its verb system, the propensity to use various kinds of quantifiers or generics may distinguish categories that promote inferences from those that do not.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Beyond Labeling: The Role of Maternal Input in the Acquisition of Richly Structured Categories

Gelman

Coley²,

Rosengren³

et al. 1998

Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development

224

208

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Recent research shows that preschool children are skilled classifiers, using categories both to organize information efficiently and to extend knowledge beyond what is already known. Moreover, by 2 1/2 years of age, children are sensitive to nonobvious properties of categories and assume that category members share underlying similarities. Why do children expect categories to have this rich structure, and how do children appropriately limit this expectation to certain domains (i.e., animals vs. artifacts)? The present studies explore the role of maternal input, providing one of the first detailed looks at how mothers convey information about category structure during naturalistic interactions. Forty-six mothers and their 20- or 35-month-old children read picture books together. Sessions were videotaped, and the resulting transcripts were coded for explicit and implicit discussion of animal and artifact categories. Sequences of gestures toward pictures were also examined in order to reveal the focus of attention and implicit links. drawn between items. Results indicate that mothers provided a rich array of information beyond simple labeling routines. Taxonomic categories were stressed in subtle and indirect ways, in both speech and gesture, especially for animals. Statements and gestures that linked two pictures were more frequent for taxonomically related animal pictures than for other picture pairs. Mothers also generalized category information using generic noun phrases, again more for animals than for artifacts. However, mothers provided little explicit discussion of nonobvious similarities, underlying properties, or inductive potential among category members. These data suggest possible mechanisms by which a notion of kind is conveyed in the absence of detailed information about category essences.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Beyond Labeling: The Role of Maternal Input in the Acquisition of Richly Structured Categories

Gelman

Coley²,

Rosengren³

et al. 1998

Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development

224

208

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…In this sense, our work is reminiscent of the classic literature on the relation between color names and the psychological organization of the color spectrum showing how languages reflect important psychological reference points. Recent cross-linguistic studies focus on potential differences between speakers of different languages in other cognitive tasks (e.g., Sera, Reittinger, & Castillo, 1991;Lucy, 1992;Sera, Berge, & Castillo, 1994;Martinez & Shatz, 1996;Levinson, 1996;Sera, Bales, & Castillo, 1997). Across languages with more than two color terms, the terms cluster around certain wavelengths, and those wavelengths enjoy the psychological advantage of prototypes (Rosch, 1973).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language and Ontological Knowledge: The Contrast between Objects and Events Made by Spanish and English Speakers

Sera

Gathje

Pintado

1999

Journal of Memory and Language

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“…With adjectives the semantic contrasts classically debated seem to be clear: ser is used with attributes considered to be permanent, inherent, typical, essential, whereas estar is used with temporary, atypical, accidental attributes: e.g., Maria es gorda ('Mary is permanently fat') vs. Maria estd gorda ('Mary is temporarily fat'). Finally, with locatives the distinction between ser and estar (Sera, Reittinger & Castillo 1991) is based upon the distinction between objects (ser) and events (estar). It has to be noted that this last distinction is not totally independent from the previous distinction between 'permanence' and 'temporariness'.…”

Section: The Nvlvn Clause Structure Contrastmentioning

confidence: 99%

Referent introductions in Spanish narratives as a function of contextual constraints: a crosslinguistic perspective

Kail

Lopez

1997

First Language

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This study investigates referent introductions in narratives produced by Spanish children of 6, 9 and 11 years and adults in two situations, where they either could assume mutual background knowledge of the narrated content (Situation MK) or could not make this assumption (Situation NMK), while holding this content constant by means of a picture book. Overall, situation NMK elicits more indefinite first mentions than situation MK and this effect is more marked for the main characters than for the secondary ones. The developmental pattern indicates that 9 years is the critical age at which Spanish children begin to use more indefinite first mentions in both situations. For all animate referents, Spanish children's and adults' introductions occur significantly more often in VN clause structures than in NV ones. 104 communicative device, and contextual, such as shared knowledge, with special attention to their interaction during development.

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Developing definitions of objects and events in English and Spanish speakers

Cited by 31 publications

References 38 publications

Beyond Labeling: The Role of Maternal Input in the Acquisition of Richly Structured Categories

Beyond Labeling: The Role of Maternal Input in the Acquisition of Richly Structured Categories

Language and Ontological Knowledge: The Contrast between Objects and Events Made by Spanish and English Speakers

Referent introductions in Spanish narratives as a function of contextual constraints: a crosslinguistic perspective

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