Kids aged 2 understand complex grammar
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Kids aged 2 understand complex grammar (Thinkstock photos/Getty images)
Two-year-old children can understand complex grammar even before they have learned to speak in full sentences, a new study have found.
Researchers at the University's Child Language Study Centre showed children, aged two, sentences containing made-up verbs, such as 'the rabbit is glorping the duck', and asked them to match the sentence with a cartoon picture.
They found that even the youngest two-year-old could identify the correct image with the correct sentence, more often than would be expected by chance.
The study suggests that infants know more about language structure than they can actually articulate, and at a much earlier age than previously thought.
"We tested this theory by showing two-year-old children pictures of a cartoon rabbit and duck. One picture was the rabbit acting on the duck, lifting the duck's leg for example, and the other was an image of the animals acting independently, such as swinging a leg," said Dr Caroline Rowland, from the University's Institute of Psychology, Health and Society.
"We then played sentences with made-up verbs - the rabbit is glorping the duck - over a loudspeaker and asked them to point to the correct picture.
They picked out the correct image more often than we would expect them to by chance."
The findings suggest that even at 21 months infants are sensitive to the different meanings produced by particular grammatical construction, even if they can't articulate words properly, said Rowland.
The study has been published in the journal Cognitive Science.
Researchers at the University's Child Language Study Centre showed children, aged two, sentences containing made-up verbs, such as 'the rabbit is glorping the duck', and asked them to match the sentence with a cartoon picture.
They found that even the youngest two-year-old could identify the correct image with the correct sentence, more often than would be expected by chance.
The study suggests that infants know more about language structure than they can actually articulate, and at a much earlier age than previously thought.
"We tested this theory by showing two-year-old children pictures of a cartoon rabbit and duck. One picture was the rabbit acting on the duck, lifting the duck's leg for example, and the other was an image of the animals acting independently, such as swinging a leg," said Dr Caroline Rowland, from the University's Institute of Psychology, Health and Society.
"We then played sentences with made-up verbs - the rabbit is glorping the duck - over a loudspeaker and asked them to point to the correct picture.
They picked out the correct image more often than we would expect them to by chance."
The findings suggest that even at 21 months infants are sensitive to the different meanings produced by particular grammatical construction, even if they can't articulate words properly, said Rowland.
The study has been published in the journal Cognitive Science.
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