Psihologija | 2021
Children’s comprehension of the verbal aspect in Serbian
Abstract
The aim of the study was to investigate how Serbian native speaking preschool\n children comprehend perfective and imperfective aspect in comparison to\n adults. After watching animated movies with complete, incomplete and\n unstarted actions, the participants were asked questions with a perfective\n or imperfective verb form and responded by pointing to the event(s) that\n corresponded to each question. The results converged to a clear\n developmental trend in understanding of aspectual forms. The data indicate\n that the acquisition of perfective precedes the acquisition of imperfective:\n 3-year-olds typically understand only the meaning of perfective; most\n 5-year-olds have almost adult-like understanding of both aspectual forms,\n while 4-year-olds are a transitional group. Our results support the\n viewpoint that children s and adults? representations of this language\n category differ qualitatively, and we argue that mastering of aspect\n semantics is a long-term process that presupposes a certain level of\n cognitive and pragmatic development, and lasts throughout the preschool\n period.