Quantitatively Measuring Developmental Characteristics in the Use of Deictic Verbs for Japanese-Speaking Children: A Pilot Study

The acquisition of deictic verbs is a significant milestone in language development. This complex process requires an understanding of the interplay between the personal pronouns “I/you” and deictic verbs. Although demonstrating the cognitive processes associated with deictic shifting through data i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inLanguages (Basel) Vol. 9; no. 10; p. 321
Main Authors Asaoka, Hiroshi, Takahashi, Tomoya
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.10.2024
Subjects
Analysis
Bookstores
Children
Cognition
deictic shifting
deictic verb
Deixis
Japanese language
Language acquisition
Measurement
Motion pictures
personal pronoun
Pilot projects
spatial relation
verbal expression
Verbs
Zacks, Jeffrey M
Japan
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Summary:The acquisition of deictic verbs is a significant milestone in language development. This complex process requires an understanding of the interplay between the personal pronouns “I/you” and deictic verbs. Although demonstrating the cognitive processes associated with deictic shifting through data is valuable, research issues regarding data accuracy and the spatial arrangement of the self and other remain unresolved. This pilot study aimed to quantitatively measure the body movements of Japanese-speaking children during their utterances of “come/go”. Twelve typically developing children aged 6–7 participated in this study. Multiple scenarios were set up where the researcher presented phrases using “come/go” with deictic gestures, such as moving one’s upper body forward or backward, and the participant replied with “come/go”. When performing a role, the researcher sat face-to-face or side-by-side with the participant, depending on the type of question–response. It is possible that there is a learning process whereby verbal responses using “come/go” align with corresponding body movements in the specific question type. This process is deeply involved in the development of perspective-taking abilities. Future research with relatively large samples and cross-cultural comparisons is warranted to deepen the understanding of this linguistic acquisition process and its implications.
ISSN:2226-471X
2226-471X
DOI:10.3390/languages9100321