The acquisition of temporal event sequencing: A cross-linguistic study using an elicited imitation task

Abstract

Forty children aged between 3;6 and 7;6 years from each of three languages, English, Thai and Lisu, were asked to repeat sentences containing the bi-referential relations signalled by then, before, after, when, while, at the same time, until and since. Performance on this elicited imitation task revealed that, across languages, then has a relatively early acquisition and since has a relatively late acquisition. Language specific effects were also found, namely a relatively early acquisition of until in Lisu, and a relatively early acquisition of before and late acquisition of after in Thai. Analysis of substitution errors revealed common substitutions across languages for and and when, and of mono- for bi-referential responses. There was qualified support for the predictions that sequentiality (then, before, after) occurs prior to simultaneity (while, at the same time), and for a relatively late acquisition of 'sequence and duration' (since, until). Copyright © SAGE Publications.