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Experiments in Linguistic Meaning
Article . 2025 . Peer-reviewed
License: CC BY
Data sources: Crossref
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Mechanistic Support Language in Colombian Spanish-speakers

Authors: Jennifer Barbosa; Paola Pinzón-Henao; Angelina Pasquella; Paul Muentener; Laura Lakusta;

Mechanistic Support Language in Colombian Spanish-speakers

Abstract

Beyond basic spatial relations (e.g., teddy on table), we know little about how children learn to talk about Mechanical Support events (e.g., objects attached/hung from a surface via tape) and map them onto linguistic structures. Moreso, the majority of the research that has been done focuses on children learning English - a language that has several verbs that lexicalize support via a specific mechanism (Levin, 1993; e.g., glue, tape, clip, etc.). The current study seeks to deepen our understanding of spatial language acquisition by diversifying the populations that have been studied. Specifically, 4- to 6-year-old monolingual Spanish-speaking children and adults in Colombia viewed Mechanical Support events (e.g., girl puts paper on door via tape) and were then asked, ‘Can you tell me what my sister did with my toy?’. Both children and adults used Non-Mechanism (e.g., poner = ‘put’, colgar = 'hang') and Mechanism Verbs (e.g., pegar = 'stick'); the use of Mechanism Verbs increased from 4- to 6- years of age. In addition, whether the mechanism was visible in the event influenced how it was mapped to language; when the mechanism was visible (vs. when it was hidden), children and adults were more likely to encode the mechanism in a prepositional phrase (e.g., lo colgó con un gancho = ‘she hung it with a clip’). These findings shed light on the development of Mechanical Support language in Spanish- speaking children, the influence of context - specifically, visibility of mechanism - on language, as well as the lexicalization patterns for encoding physical support in Spanish more generally.

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selected citations
These citations are derived from selected sources.
This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Citations provided by BIP!
popularity
This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Popularity provided by BIP!
influence
This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Influence provided by BIP!
impulse
This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Impulse provided by BIP!
0
Average
Average
Average
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