Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2015
Abstract
We examined whether Korean 2- and 3-year-old children can use case markers to understand the meaning of Korean canonical (subject–object–verb; SOV) and noncanonical (object–subject–verb; OSV) word order in a transitive sentence. Side-by-side videos depicted the same caused motion events, both of which involved the same two characters but with the agent versus patient roles reversed. Along with the videos, children heard SOV sentences (e.g., Bear-nominative Rabbit-accusative is pushing.) or OSV sentences (e.g., Rabbit-accusative Bear-nominative is pushing.), both of which were marked with nominative and accusative case markers. Two-year-olds correctly understood only the canonical sentences (Experiment 1). In contrast, 3-year-olds understood both canonical and noncanonical sentences more accurately than predicted by chance (Experiment 2). These findings suggest that by the age of 3, Korean preschoolers can rely on case markers to understand sentence meaning.
Recommended Citation
Jin, K.-S., Kim, M., & Song, H.-J. (2015). The development of Korean preschoolers’ ability to understand transitive sentences using case-markers. The Korean Journal of Developmental Psychology, 28(3), 75-90.
Copyright
The authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License
Comments
This article was originally published in The Korean Journal of Developmental Psychology, volume 28, issue 3, in 2015.
This article is in Korean.