Six-year-old children's understanding of sentences adjoined with time adverbs

Abstract

The adjoining of clauses with temporal links is the basis for many sentences that convey sequence of events. The present study attempts to delineate 6-year-old children's (N=30) understanding of the meaning sequences imparted by sentences adjoined with "after", "before", and "until". Their performance of the meaning sequence for each of 24 carefully constructed sentences is compared to an adult model. Analysis of the results (using a Wilcoxon Matched Pairs Signed Rank Test) indicated that: (1)Ss understood sentences adjoined with "after" according to an adult model more frequently than "before" adjoined sentences (P<0.01); (b) "Until" adjoined sentences with a negative marker in the main clause were understood according to an adult model more often than "until" adjoined sentences with no such negative element, but the difference was not significant at a=0.01; (3)Ss understood "before" adjoined sentences according to an adult model more often than "until" adjoined sentences, but the difference was not significant at a=0.01. In general, the results indicated that 6-year-olds have not yet completed development of an "adult grammar" with respect to adjoining clauses with temporal links, "after", "before", and "until".