Children's use of demonstrative words: spatial deictics beyond infancy

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Developmental Psychology
• Child Language Acquisition

Background:

• Demonstrative words are crucial for establishing reference in spoken language.
• Understanding the developmental trajectory of demonstrative production in children is key to linguistic development.
• Previous research has not fully detailed the acquisition patterns of Spanish demonstratives.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the production and use of demonstrative words in Spanish-speaking children aged 2 to 10.
• To compare children's demonstrative usage with adult patterns.
• To investigate the developmental timeline of demonstrative acquisition in Spanish.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from the CHILDES corpora, specifically focusing on Spanish-speaking children.
• Analyzed the frequency and type of demonstrative words produced by children across different age groups.
• Compared child language data with adult language data to identify developmental differences.

Main Results:

• Children aged 2-10 possess all Spanish demonstratives in their lexicon, but distal terms are infrequent.
• Demonstrative use patterns in 10-year-olds are not yet adult-like.
• Younger children use proximal demonstratives more frequently than older children and adults, who favor the medial term 'ese'.

Conclusions:

• The development of demonstrative production in Spanish-speaking children is a protracted process.
• Significant differences persist between child and adult demonstrative usage even in older children.
• Further research is needed to understand the theoretical implications for the Spanish demonstrative system.