The role of recursion in the development of higher-order cognitive skills: an experimental study in Brazilian Portuguese acquisition

Authors

  • Luciana Teixeira UFJF
  • Ana Paula da Silva UFJF

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5007/1984-8412.2014v11n3p340

Abstract

This experimental study focuses on the relationship between language development and the reasoning of first-order false belief (FB) standard tasks by children acquiring Brazilian Portuguese. We investigate to what extent mastering specific language structures, such as complementing syntax, affects the performance of this kind of reasoning by 3-4 year olds, as proposed by de Villiers (2004, 2005 and 2007). This study reconciles a minimalist conception of language (CHOMSKY, 1995-2001) with the Syntactic Bootstrapping hypothesis (GLEITMAN, 1990). We report results of an experimental activity that consisted of 3 pre-tests and a classic FB task of location-change, applied to 24 children aged 3-4 and 5-6 years old. The results of the experiments reported here are compatible with the working hypothesis, namely, that the complementing syntax is not a sufficient condition for the establishment of FBs reasoning.

Author Biographies

Luciana Teixeira, UFJF

Professora do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Linguística da UFJF

Ana Paula da Silva, UFJF

Doutoranda do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Linguística da UFJF

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Published

2014-09-20

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 3 (2014): Psicolinguística: estudos recentes em aquisição e processamento da linguagem

Section

Article

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