7 - Preschoolers (2-5) development morphosyntactic skills Flashcards
(35 cards)
Table 8-2 (pg 310)
MEMORIZE
Turnbull & Justice 2012
- in their envrionments, most children hear simple syntax
- grammatically good utterances with simple noun phrase and verb structures
- eg: “The cat ate her food!”
However… (Turnbull & Justice 2012):
Children who hear more complex syntax produce greater amounts of complex syntax at an earlier age
Grammatical morphemes start to emerge around 18 months. According to Brown’s Morphemes (310), the order is:
- -ing
- In
- On
- regular plural -s
To assess children’s morphosyntactic skills…
- calculate MLU (mean length of utterance)
* instead of counting words, we count morphemes (free and bound)
Words vs. Morphemes
“We wanted to eat cookies.” – How many words and how many morphemes?
5 words
7 morphemes
How many morphemes?
- The three boys wanted five candies.
- We played al day with my friend’s toys.
- He’s going to cook eggs and bacon.
- 9
- 11
- 10
Basic Sentence Constituents
Phrase Clause Sentence Noun Phrase Verb Phrase
Phrase
a group of words that is structurally related
“tall man” “pretty lady” “orange carrot” “fast horse”
Clause
has subject and predicate
• black dog bark
• Daddy cook
• brother watch TV
Sentence (usually around 3yo)
A clause that is structurally complete
• The black dog is barking
• Daddy is cooking
Noun Phrase
Sentence role filled by people and objects
• The boy is blowing out his candles
Verb Phrase
Actions or relationships that are central to the sentence
• The girl lifes the beach ball.
Noun Phrase Elements
Determiners Pronounds Noun suffixes Comparatives Superlatives
Determiners
Precede and modify nouns (around 3yo) • Demonstrative: this, that, these, those • Ordinals: first, second, third • Adjectives: blue, old, fuzzy, cold • Possessives: my, his, hers
Pronouns
a group of forms that can replace nouns or entire noun phrases
• I, he, she, we, you, it
• Common errors: me/I, him/he, her/she, them/they (should clear up by 3-4y)
Noun Suffixes
Comparatives, superlatives, derivationals;
• preschoolers begin to use these accurately between 3-5 years of age
Comparatives
-er suffix; comparrison between 2 items
• Shorter, cleaner, shinier
(usually around 3, should be by 5)
Superlatives
-est suffix; conveys comparison among more than 2 items
• tallest, brightest, blackest
Derivational suffix -er
Changes a verb into a noun that names the person who engages in that action
• teacher, painter, singer, runner, farmer, plumber, thinker
Verb Phrase Elements
Action verbs
Copula verbs
State verbs
process verbs
Action verbs
activity that can be seen
• writing, swimming, dancing
Copula verbs
to-be verbs that serve syntactically as the main verbs in sentences
• am, is, are, was, were
State verbs
express static or unchanging condition
• That tree is old.
• The building stands next to the tree.
