Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 Ph.D. Student of Linguistics, Department of English Language and Literature, Ilam Branch, Islamic Azad university, Ilam, Iran.
2 Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Ilam Branch, Islamic Azad university, Ilam, Iran
3 Department of linguistics, Islamic Azad University, Ilam branch, ilam, Iran
Abstract
Comparative study of scalar implicature comprehension in 5-7 mono-lingual Persian-speaking children
Research showed that children need two important pragmatic skills to understand Simile: understanding the intended similarity and deriving a scalar implicature. However, the second skill has not been studied yet by Iranian researchers. The aim of the present study was to investigate the ability of mono-lingual Persian-speaking children aged 5 to 7 years old and adults in understanding scalar implicature. To this aim, 30 Persian-speaking children 5, 6 and 7 years old were selected through semi- random method and were compared with 10 adults. The groups were investigated and compared on a first experiment which was a form of similarity judgment task and on a second experiment, which was in a form of a game. In the first experiment, subjects should understand "x is like a y" as an expression of similarity. In the second experiment, the subjects received metaphors (“Nina is a rabbit”) and similes (“Nina is like a rabbit) as clues to select one of a three images (a rabbit, a girl or a rabbit-looking girl). The results showed that 5 years old children were able to understand the implicature “x is not a y”, whereas 6-7 years old children performed like adults. The results showed that children from the early childhood were able to understand and extract scalar implicature and the literal meaning of simile and metaphor decreased by increasing age.Taken together, the results of the research showed that preschool children from the age of 5 are able to understand graded implication and the performance of 7-year-old children is similar to the performance of adults. Also, one of the most important reasons that young children are able to extract graded implication in simile comprehension tasks compared to other graded expressions is that the frequency of categorical and comparative sentences in child-centered speech is high due to their educational role and their learning compared to other quantifiers. (such as some and all) or logical conjunctions (such as "or" and "and") occur earlier
Keywords: Scalar implicature, simile, metaphor, mono-lingual Persian-speaking children.
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