Relative clause sentence comprehension by rioplatense spanish-speaking children aged 6-11 years

Authors

  • Dolores Zamora Laboratorio de Investigaciones en Neuropsicología y Lenguaje - Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional (INCyT) / Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2073-416X
  • Juan-Pablo Barreyro Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigación en Psicología Matemática y Experimental (CIIPME) / Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1606-1049
  • María-Victoria Sánchez Laboratorio de Investigaciones en Neuropsicología y Lenguaje - Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional (INCyT) / Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Macarena Martínez-Cuitiño Laboratorio de Investigaciones en Neuropsicología y Lenguaje - Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional (INCyT) / Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4912-1626

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15381/lengsoc.v22i2.23934

Keywords:

sentence comprehension, relative clauses, children, syntax acquisition

Abstract

Relative clause comprehension has been the object of numerous investigations in children, but few have been able to establish the stage in which it is acquired, and research in Spanish is scarce. The aim of this study is to compare the performance of Rioplatense Spanish-speaking children in the comprehension of relative clauses. For that purpose, a total of 105 children from three age groups: 6-7, 8-9, and 10-11 years old, respectively, were assessed with an oral comprehension task of subject and object relative clauses. Results show significant differences in the performance of each group. Children of all ages have difficulty understanding object relative clauses, while performance in subject relative clauses depends on the position of the subordinate clause.

Author Biographies

  • Dolores Zamora, Laboratorio de Investigaciones en Neuropsicología y Lenguaje - Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional (INCyT) / Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Professor and Bachelor of Arts from the University of Buenos Aires, specialized in Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics. Currently, she is a doctoral fellow of the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET). Her research topic focuses on the relationship between sentence comprehension and verbal working memory in elementary school children. Since 2014, she is part of the Neuropsychology and Language Research Laboratory of the INECO Foundation. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses at Universidad Favaloro and Universidad de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires.

  • Juan-Pablo Barreyro, Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigación en Psicología Matemática y Experimental (CIIPME) / Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina

    D. in Psychology from the University of Buenos Aires, specializing in processes and skills related to text comprehension, working memory and attentional abilities. He holds a degree in Psychology from the School of Psychology of the University of Buenos Aires and is a Specialist in Statistics for Health Sciences from the School of Exact and Natural Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires. Currently, he is an independent researcher at the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET). He has been the director of UBACyT research projects since 2010.

  • María-Victoria Sánchez, Laboratorio de Investigaciones en Neuropsicología y Lenguaje - Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional (INCyT) / Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Professor and Bachelor of Arts at the Universidad Católica Argentina. She is a doctoral fellow of the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, and is currently researching syntactic impairment in Spanish-speaking patients with primary progressive aphasia. She is an assistant professor of Spanish Grammar I and II, and General Linguistics I and II at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the Universidad Católica Argentina. Since 2020, she is part of the Neuropsychology and Language Research Laboratory of the INECO Foundation.

  • Macarena Martínez-Cuitiño, Laboratorio de Investigaciones en Neuropsicología y Lenguaje - Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional (INCyT) / Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Speech therapist graduated from the School of Medical Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires. Specialist in Clinical Neuropsychology (UBA). Doctor of the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the UBA. Currently, she is an adjunct researcher at the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET). She is a professor of Basic Processes I and Basic Processes II at the Faculty of Human and Behavioral Sciences of the Universidad Favaloro and Head of Practical Works of Neurophysiology I at the Faculty of Psychology (UBA). She is currently the director of the Neuropsychology and Language Research Laboratory at INECO Foundation.

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Published

2023-09-26

Issue

Vol. 22 No. 2 (2023)

Section

Academic articles

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Copyright (c) 2023 Dolores Zamora, Juan-Pablo Barreyro, María-Victoria Sánchez, Macarena Martínez-Cuitiño

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How to Cite

Zamora, D., Barreyro, J.-P., Sánchez, M.-V., & Martínez-Cuitiño, M. (2023). Relative clause sentence comprehension by rioplatense spanish-speaking children aged 6-11 years. Lengua Y Sociedad, 22(2), 187-203. https://doi.org/10.15381/lengsoc.v22i2.23934