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Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
|August 1, 1985
Summary
Children initially grasp the word "more" through prototypes, not feature-based rules. Their understanding of "more" for mass vs. count nouns and as a comparative marker develops later in childhood.
Area of Science:
- Linguistic Development
- Child Language Acquisition
- Developmental Psychology
Background:
- The word "more" is a fundamental aspect of early child language.
- Understanding its semantic and grammatical functions is crucial for linguistic development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the developmental trajectory of the word "more" in children's speech.
- To explore the semantic content, mass/count differentiation, and comparative usage of "more".
Main Methods:
- Three experiments were conducted with 56 children aged 2;6 to 6;0.
- Experiment 1: Analyzed the early semantic content of "more."
- Experiments 2 & 3: Examined differentiation of mass/count quantifiers and comparative adjective usage.
Main Results:
- Children initially represent "more" using prototypes, not systematic features.
- Distinguishing "more" for mass vs. count nouns develops late.
- Comparative use of "more" emerges after mastering "-er" and non-adjectival uses.
Conclusions:
- Early semantic representation of "more" is prototype-based.
- Complex grammatical and semantic understanding of "more" develops gradually.
- Mastery of comparative functions follows simpler quantificational uses.