Reili Argus

How do 5-year-olds understand questions? Differences in languages across Europe

The comprehension of constituent questions is an important topic for language acquisition research and for applications in the diagnosis of language impairment. This article presents the results of a study investigating the comprehension of different types of questions by 5-year-old, typically developing children across 19 European countries, 18 different languages, and 7 language (sub-)families. The study investigated the effects of two factors on question formation: (a) whether the question contains a simple interrogative word like ‘who’ or a complex one like ‘which princess’, and (b) whether the question word was related to the sentential subject or object position of the verb. The findings show that there is considerable variation among languages, but the two factors mentioned consistently affect children’s performance. The cross-linguistic variation shows that three linguistic factors facilitate children’s understanding of questions: having overt case morphology, having a single lexical item for both ‘who’ and ‘which’, and the use of synthetic verbal forms.

Kuidas uurida esimese ja teise keele omandamist

Artikli eesmark on tutvustada esimese ja teise keele omandamist kasitleva uurimuse ideed. Esiplaanil on Eesti vajadused ning uurimitulemuste rakendatavus eesti keele oppes, tahelepanu keskmes esimese ja teise keele omandamise protsessi puudutavad kusimused: kuidas keeleoskus areneb, missugused keeleuksused (morfosuntaktilised konstruktsioonid, kollokatsioonid, idiomaatika jm) iseloomustavad keeleoskuse tasemeid. Kuna eesti keele pohjal ei ole esimese ja teise keele omandamist korpuslingvistiliselt ja vordlevalt seni kasitletud, siis pohjendatakse vajadust taolise uurimuse jarele, samuti selgitatakse, missugustest teoreetilistest ja metodoloogilistest alustest oleks seejuures mottekas lahtuda, missuguseid analuusimeetodeid kasutada. Artiklis kirjeldatava uurimissuuna arendamisega on alustatud Tallinna Ulikooli eesti keele ja kultuuri instituudis. http://dx.doi.org/10.5128/LV20.01