Lexical retrieval for nouns and verbs in typically developing bilectal children
Journal
First Language
Date Issued
April 2013
Abstract
Previous evidence shows that nouns are easier for many language users to retrieve than
verbs, but scant research has been conducted with children in bilectal environments
(where both standard and non-standard forms of a language are spoken). This study
investigates object and action naming in children who are native speakers of a nonstandard
variety, Cypriot Greek (CG), but instructed scholastically in the official variety,
Standard Modern Greek (SMG). Participants were typically developing Greek Cypriot
preschoolers and early school-aged children who completed the Cypriot Object and
Action Test (COAT). Results revealed a significant grammatical word class effect
favoring nouns over verbs in Modern Greek, with a developmental change in the size
of the noun–verb gap. Both age groups showed similar error patterns for both object
and action targets. For action names, children produced more semantic descriptions
or circumlocutions (e.g., hitting the nail for hammering), whereas omissions were the
prominent error type for object names. The findings are discussed in relation to crosslinguistic
evidence of grammatical word class differences using the picture naming
paradigm for monolingual (pre)school-aged children.
verbs, but scant research has been conducted with children in bilectal environments
(where both standard and non-standard forms of a language are spoken). This study
investigates object and action naming in children who are native speakers of a nonstandard
variety, Cypriot Greek (CG), but instructed scholastically in the official variety,
Standard Modern Greek (SMG). Participants were typically developing Greek Cypriot
preschoolers and early school-aged children who completed the Cypriot Object and
Action Test (COAT). Results revealed a significant grammatical word class effect
favoring nouns over verbs in Modern Greek, with a developmental change in the size
of the noun–verb gap. Both age groups showed similar error patterns for both object
and action targets. For action names, children produced more semantic descriptions
or circumlocutions (e.g., hitting the nail for hammering), whereas omissions were the
prominent error type for object names. The findings are discussed in relation to crosslinguistic
evidence of grammatical word class differences using the picture naming
paradigm for monolingual (pre)school-aged children.
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