Young Children's Comprehension of Complex Sentences

Abstract

Studies of children's speech have shown that sentences with subordinate clauses in the subject generally appear later than those with such clauses in the object; this fits Yngve's model of sentence production. However, there are reasons for believing that children must learn to perceive and interpret 'subject' sentences at an earlier age than 'object' sentences. The present study was intended to investigate this and to test specific predictions based on hypothesized processing strategies. The predictions were generally supported and it was shown that children do not acquire a strategy which allows them to interpret 'object' clauses before mental age 7, whereas a strategy which can handle 'subject' sentences is established before this.