ISSN : 1229-0718
Generic expressions (e.g., “Birds have wings”) describe different general properties and help children acquire knowledge of a given category. Although prior studies have suggested that generic inferences become more sophisticated around 4 years of age, no studies have tested younger age groups, and the findings have largely been limited to children in English-speaking communities. The present study examined Korean-speaking 3-year-olds’ abilities to make inferences based on generic expressions. First, we elicited and analyzed Korean-speaking adults’ utterances that described general properties of an animal category, and found that the most widely utilized generic noun phrases (NPs) of Korean were bare singulars, with the topic marker eun/nun accompanying these NPs. We then presented Korean 3-year-olds with generic expressions about properties of novel animals using these morpho-syntactic features, and observed the extent to which they were willing to extend the property to a novel instance of the given category. Specifically, we examined whether 3-year-olds can make generic inferences regardless of the strength of evidence (e.g., number of exemplars), or when an exception was introduced. We found that 3-year-olds can make generic inferences regardless of evidence strength, and distinguish genericity from nongenericity despite the presence of an exception. The findings suggest that sophisticated abilities to make generic inferences are present as early as 3 years old, and the development of inferential abilities is universal rather than language- or culture-specific.
곽은주 (2002). Structural relations in korean discourse generics. 한국언어학회, 27(1), 25-46.
권도하, & 정분선 (1999). 2~5세 유아의 복문발달에 관한 연구. 言語治療硏究, 8, 157-173.
김순자, & 김명희 (2005). 일반 논문: 지시어“이”, “그”, “저”의 지시 기능 습득 과정. 텍스트언어학, 19, 63-81.
김일웅 (1982). 지시의 분류와 지시사 ‘이, 그, 저’의 쓰임. 한글, -, 53-88.
박기성 (2000). 영어화 한국어의 총칭성에 관한 대조 분석. 코기토, 55, 271-302.
유유현 (2010). 총칭성과 정보구조. 텍스트언어학, 28, 129.
전영철 (1997). 한국어 총칭문의 유형. 언어학, 21, 289-303.
전영철 (2003). 한국어 총칭표현들의 의미론적분석. 언어학, 37, 267-295.
전영철 (2004). 한국어의 복수성과 총칭성/한정성. 언어와 정보, 8, 27-45.
조명한 (1982). 한국아동의 언어획득 연구. 서울:서울大學校.
Chambers, C., Chambers, S., Graham, J., & Turner. (2008). When hearsay trumps evidence: How generic language guides preschoolers’ inferences about unfamiliar things. Language and Cognitive Processes, 23, 749-766.
Cimpian, A., Cimpian, E., & Markman. (2008). Preschool children’s use of cues to generic meaning. Cognition, 107, 19-53.
Gelman, S. A. (2004). Learning words for kinds:Generic noun phrases in acquisition. Weaving a Lexicon, 445-484.
Gelman, S. A., Star, J. R., & Flukes, J. (2002). Children's use of generics in inductive inferences. Journal of Cognition and Development, 3, 179-199.
Gelman, S. A., Goetz, P. J., Sarnecka, B. W., & Flukes, J. (2008). Generic language in parentchild conversations. Language Learning and Development, 4, 1-31.
Gelman, S. A., & Tardif, T. (1998). A crosslinguistic comparison of generic noun phrases in english and mandarin. Cognition, 66, 215-248.
Gelman, S. A., & Raman, L. (2003). Preschool children use linguistic form class and pragmatic cues to interpret generics. Child Development, 74, 308-325.
Gelman, S. A., & Bloom, P. (2007). Developmental changes in the understanding of generics. Cognition, 105, 166-183.
Graham, S., Nayer, S., & Gelman. (2011). Twoyear-olds use the Generic/Nongeneric distinction to guide their inferences about novel kinds. Child Development, 82(2), 493-507.
Hollander, M. A. (2002). Children's interpretation of generic noun phrases. Developmental Psychology, 38, 883.
Lyons, J. (1977). Semantics Cambridge University Press.
Murphy, G. L. (2004). The big book of concepts. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Prasada, S., & Prasada. (2000). Acquiring generic knowledge. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4, 66-72.