{"title":"Twice Upon a Time: Children Use Syntax to Learn the Meanings of Yesterday and Tomorrow","authors":"Urvi Maheshwari, David Barner","doi":"10.1111/desc.13600","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div>\n \n <p>Time words like “yesterday” and “tomorrow” are abstract, and are interpreted relative to the context in which they are produced: the word “tomorrow” refers to a different point in time now than in 24 h. We tested 112 three- to five-year-old English- and Hindi-speaking children on their knowledge of “yesterday” and “tomorrow,” which are represented by the same word in Hindi-Urdu: “kal.” We found that Hindi learners performed better than English learners when tested on actual past and future events, but that performance for hypothetical events was poor for both groups. Compatible with a “syntactic cues” account, we conclude that syntactic tense information—which is necessary for differentiating “yesterday” from “tomorrow” in Hindi—may play a stronger role in learning the deictic status of these words than mapping of specific words to particular past and future events (“event mapping”).</p>\n </div>","PeriodicalId":48392,"journal":{"name":"Developmental Science","volume":"28 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2000,"publicationDate":"2024-12-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Developmental Science","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/desc.13600","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENTAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Time words like “yesterday” and “tomorrow” are abstract, and are interpreted relative to the context in which they are produced: the word “tomorrow” refers to a different point in time now than in 24 h. We tested 112 three- to five-year-old English- and Hindi-speaking children on their knowledge of “yesterday” and “tomorrow,” which are represented by the same word in Hindi-Urdu: “kal.” We found that Hindi learners performed better than English learners when tested on actual past and future events, but that performance for hypothetical events was poor for both groups. Compatible with a “syntactic cues” account, we conclude that syntactic tense information—which is necessary for differentiating “yesterday” from “tomorrow” in Hindi—may play a stronger role in learning the deictic status of these words than mapping of specific words to particular past and future events (“event mapping”).
期刊介绍：
Developmental Science publishes cutting-edge theory and up-to-the-minute research on scientific developmental psychology from leading thinkers in the field. It is currently the only journal that specifically focuses on human developmental cognitive neuroscience. Coverage includes: - Clinical, computational and comparative approaches to development - Key advances in cognitive and social development - Developmental cognitive neuroscience - Functional neuroimaging of the developing brain
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
分享
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：
扫码关注我们
