ERIC Number: EJ1222177
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019-Aug
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0142-7237
EISSN: N/A
Indices of Social Knowledge in Italian-Speaking Children: Relations between Personal Pronouns, Verb Conjugations and Mental State Language
Longobardi, Emiddia; Spataro, Pietro; Pecora, Giulia; Bellagamba, Francesca
First Language, v39 n4 p396-411 Aug 2019
This cross-sectional study investigated the use of four verbal indices of social knowledge (personal pronouns, verb conjugations, people words and mental state language) and their concurrent relations in a sample of 287 Italian-speaking children between 18 and 36 months. Results showed that the production of all indices increased with age. Mental state language (MSL) was positively associated to the use of personal pronouns and verb conjugations, suggesting that the difficulty in the acquisition of person-marking devices is partly due to social constraints. Moreover, both second- and third-person pronouns and verb conjugations were related to the acquisition of MSL, above and beyond the effects due to age and vocabulary. First-person references had no unique relation to MSL, after considering second- and third-person references. Lastly, the use of people words showed bidirectional associations with MSL, suggesting that the frequency of this category might be considered as an early verbal indicator of children's social knowledge.
Descriptors: Italian, Native Language, Form Classes (Languages), Verbs, Infants, Toddlers, Language Usage, Language Acquisition, Difficulty Level, Social Influences, Correlation, Word Frequency, Social Cognition, Case Studies, Theory of Mind, Morphemes, Foreign Countries, Language Skills, Measures (Individuals), Vocabulary Skills, Age Differences
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Italy (Rome)
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A