Understanding the semantic functions of but in middle childhood : the role of text- and sentence-level comprehension abilities

Florit, Elena and Cain, Kate and Levorato, Maria Chiara (2017) Understanding the semantic functions of but in middle childhood : the role of text- and sentence-level comprehension abilities. First Language, 37 (2). pp. 109-129. ISSN 0142-7237

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Abstract

We examined Italian 7- to 9-year-olds’ understanding of the connective but when used to relate two events in sentences embedded in short stories. Performance was largely accounted for by the cognitive complexity of the sentence that included the connective and the salience of its meaning (confirmed in a second study with adults). Additional influences on children’s performance were the category of the story in which the critical sentence was embedded and the child’s text comprehension abilities. Further, by 9 years of age, performance resembled that of adults. These findings make an advance in explaining the role of information presented in a text at different levels and an individual’s linguistic abilities in children’s understanding of the connective but in stories and its development.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
First Language
Additional Information:
The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, First Language, 37 (2), 2017, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2017 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the First Language page: http://journals.sagepub.com/home/fla on SAGE Journals Online: http://journals.sagepub.com/
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3304
Subjects:
?? connectivesreading comprehensionsentence comprehensionstory grammareducationlinguistics and languagelanguage and linguistics ??
ID Code:
82289
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
20 Oct 2016 12:14
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
20 Dec 2023 01:15