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Emerging temporality: past tense and temporal/aspectual markers in Spanish-speaking children's intra-conversational narratives*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2009

PAOLA UCCELLI
PAOLA UCCELLI*
Affiliation:
Harvard Graduate School of Education
*
Address for correspondence: Harvard Graduate School of Education, 422 Larsen Hall, 14 Appian Way, Cambridge, MA 02138. e-mail: paola_uccelli@gse.harvard.edu
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Abstract

This study describes how young Spanish-speaking children become gradually more adept at encoding temporality using grammar and discourse skills in intra-conversational narratives. The research involved parallel case studies of two Spanish-speaking children followed longitudinally from ages two to three. Type/token frequencies of verb tense, temporal/aspectual markers and narrative components were analyzed to explore interrelationships among grammatical and discourse skills. Children progressed from scattered unsystematic means of encoding temporality to mastering a basic linguistic system that included devices to mark location of events, temporal relations and aspectual meanings. The consolidation of perfective past tense to express narrative events marked a crucial developmental point which preceded an explosion of additional verb tenses and temporal markers. The value of spontaneous language data, and the need to study grammar and discourse simultaneously to construct a comprehensive developmental picture are highlighted. Results are discussed in relation to theoretical proposals on the development of temporality.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 36 , Issue 5 , November 2009 , pp. 929 - 966
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

[*]

I am grateful to the three members of my dissertation committee: my advisor Catherine Snow, and my readers Lowry Hemphill and Martha Shiro. Special thanks are due to Susana López Ornat and her research team for donating María's corpus to the CHILDES database, and to Gigliana Melzi for her valuable help in the reliability process. Isabella and María have my endless gratitude.

References

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