Lahey\'S Content Categories - Information And Language Description PDF

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Lahey's Content Categories...

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Content Categories Language Content refers to the ideas, or propositions, that language codes, or the semantics of language. It has to do with what people know about objects and events in the world and the feelings and attitudes that they have about what they know. Most of the content categories defined here were derived from child data by Bloom and her associates (e.g., 1970, 1974, 1975,1980) but are similar to those described by other researchers and theoreticians (e.g., Bowerman, 1973; Brown, 1973; Fillmore, 1968; Schlesinger, 1971). Children code content categories other than those described here; other categories have not been included in the C/F/U Goal Plan for Language Learning because they have not yet been directly studied, they were not used frequently by the children studied, or they did not exhibit systematic developmental change in the data reported. Alternative categories could be derived, and different names could have (and have) been used for these same categories. Existence: Utterances in the existence category refer to objects or persons that exist in the environment. The child may look at, point to, touch, or pick up the object while naming it (e.g., “doggie” or “that a cup”) or while pointing out its existence with utterances such as “that”, “there”, or even the question “what’s that?” (Not all utterances that include nouns or demonstrative pronouns are existence utterances: only those that serve to point out the existence of the object or to identify the object are so categorized). Eventually existence utterances are more clearly identifications and include the copula (e.g., “That’s a car”, these are dogs”), and some nonverb relations may be coordinated with existence (e.g., “That’s my car”, “these are big dogs”). Recurrence: Utterances in the recurrence category make reference to the reappearance of an object (e.g., "clown gone"), or another instance of an object (e.g., "another clown") or event (e.g., "dance again") with or without the original instance still present. In early child language /more/ may be used for all coding of recurrence; later recurrence is coordinated with other categories (e.g., with notice, "I see more cookies" ; or with action , "I swing again"). Some relational word that codes recurrence must be included in the utterance in order to place the utterance in this category. Nonexistence/Disappearance: Utterances are placed in the category of nonexistence/disappearance if they make reference to the disappearance of an object (e.g., "milk is all gone") or the nonexistence of an object (e.g., "no wheels" as the child points to the car without wheels) or action ("no open" as the child tries to open the toy box) in a context in which its occurrence might somehow be expected. In early phases, children use terms such as /no, all gone, no more, away/, but later new forms are included such as /not/ and nonexistence is coordinated with other categories (e.g., with action, 'she's not riding her bike"). However, some form of negation must be used to place an utterance in this category. Rejection: If a child opposes an action (e.g., "no bath") or refuses an object (e.g., "no soap") using a form of negation, the utterance is categorized as rejection. In early child

language, the negative form is usually /no/, but later forms such as /don't/ are used and rejection is coordinated with other categories (e.g., with action, "don't touch me"). Attribution: Utterances placed in the attribution category make reference to properties of objects with respect to (1) an inherent state of the object (e.g., "broken" or "sharp") or (2) specification of an object that distinguishes it form others in its class (e.g., "red", "big", "party" in "party hat"). Such forms of attribution are eventually coordinated with other categories (e.g., with action, "I rode my bike"). Another form of coding attribution is to refer to an attribute as a condition of the object with a copula sentence such as "the car is big" or "this is hot". This form of coding attribution is placed in the category of state and called attributive state. Possession: Utterances in the possession category indicate that a particular object is associated with a given person. Associations may be permanent (e.g., "my nose") or temporary (e.g., "my chair"), and the possessor may be coded with a noun (e.g., "mommy chair") or with a pronoun (e.g., "his coat"). Inflection of noun forms with /s/ is not essential to placing an utterance within the category. The coding of possession using the order of possessor + possessed object is later coordinated with other categories (e.g., "I eat my cookies"). As with attribution, there is an alternative form of coding possession: the possessive state of an object can be described with a copula sentence such as "the car is mine". This form of coding is placed in the category of state and called possessive state. Locative Action: Utterances in the locative action category refer to movement where the goal of the movement is a change in location of a person or object. Most of locative-action utterances involve an object that is moved and a place or goal of such movement. Three subcategories of locative action can be differentiated by the semantic role of the preverbal consitituent (or the subject of the sentence) whether or not it is expressed; (1) the subject is the agent of the action [e.g., "(I) put blocks on table:]; (2) the subject is both the agent of the action and the object moved and can be called the mover [e.g., "(You) sit down"]; (3) the subject is the object moved, or patient, and the agent is not coded [e.g., "(this) goes here"]. Action: Utterances in the action category refer to the movement relationships among people and objects where the goal is not to change location. Action utterances involve a movement or activity engaged in by an agent (animate or inanimate). The movement may or may not affect another person or object (e.g., "I eat cookie" or "I jump"). Locative State: Utterances in locative state category refer to static spatial relations (e.g., a person or object and its location) where no movement within the context of the speech event (e.g., immediately before, during, or after the child utterance) established the location. Locative-state utterances specify a person or object and its place or location (e.g., "sweater chair," "fish in pond", "mommy's at work", "daddy's lying down"). State: Utterances in the state category make reference to states of affairs. A number of subcategories can be described:

1. Internal state codes feelings, attitudes, and emotions of an animate being toward an object, event, or state (e.g., "I like cookies", "I'm hungry", "he' tired"). The attitude of the speaker is often coded by modal-type verbs and includes attitudes such as: a. Volition/Intention. Frequent verbs include /want/ and /go/ (e.g., "I want to go home", "I'm gonna eat now"). b. Obligation. Frequent verbs include /should/, /must/, and /have/ (e.g., "I have to drink my milk", "you should go to bed"). c. Possibility. Frequent verbs include /can/ (e.g., "I can climb that tree"). 1. External state of affairs, such as /darkness/ or /cold/. 2. Attributive state referring to the condition or properties of an object (e.g., "it's broken", "my boat is red"). 3. Possessive state including a temporary state of ownership (e.g., "I have a pen", "that's mine", "I got a car"). Quantity: Utterances are placed within the category of quantity if they designate more than one object or person by use of a number word (e.g., "I have two sheep), plural /s/ inflection (e.g., "The pens are on the table), or adjectives such as many, all, or some. Notice: Utterances are placed in the category of notice if they code attention to a person, object, or event and include a verb of notice (e.g., see, hear, look, watch, show). Early utterances code attention to objects or peresons (e.g., "I see birdie"), while later utterances code attention to events (e.g., "watch me jump", " I see the bird flying in the sky"). Dative: Utterances are placed in the dative category if they designate the recipient of an object or action (e.g., include an indirect object), with or without a preposition (e.g., "give it to me", "open the door Lois", "this book for you"). Additive: Additive relations involve the joining of two objects, events, or states without a dependency relation between them. For example, when two clauses are joined, each clause is meaningful by itself: the combination of the two clauses does not create a meaning, and he order of clauses could be reversed. This category is used to refer to two objects conjoined intraclausally (e.g., "I got a pen and a knife"), to two events or states joined with or without a conjunction (e.g., "that's a cat/that's a dog", "I sit here and you sit there"), and to a series of events or states chained together (e.g., utterances are chained to the actions: as when a child opens a box and says "I open this"). Temporal: Temporal relations include the coding of aspect (e.g., the temporal contour of an event), tense (e.g., the relation between when an event took place and when the event was spoken about), and temporal dependency between and among events such as sequential and simultaneous occurrences. Verb inflections, auxiliary verbs, and adverbs can code tense and aspect (e.g., "I'm playing now", "it broke yesterday"). A dependency between events which involves temporal sequence or simultaneity can be coded by sequenced clauses with or without the use of a connective (e.g., "I get up and then eat breakfast", "I buy food/come home") if at least one of the events was not concurrent with

the utterance. Series of utterances that code sequential events are referred to as temporal chains. Causal: Utterances included in the causal category have an implicit or explicit cause and effect relationship between states and/or events (e.g., one expressed event or state is dependent on the other for its occurrence). When the relation is between two events or states, two subcategories have been identified; objective relations and subjective relations. Objective relations include self-evident relations (e.g., perceptible or imaginable), such as means-end, consequence, or conditional relations (e.g., "I don't have a tree/because throw it out", "maybe you could end him so he can sit"); subjective relations are based on personal, affective, or sociocultural beliefs (e.g., "she put a band-aid on her shoe and it maked it feel better", "don’t walk/the light is red"). Utterances may or may not include a connective, and the order of clauses (cause-effect cause) determines the conjunction required. Series of events that include causal relations are referred to as causal chains. Adversative: In the adversative category the relation between two events and/or states is one of contrast. Most often one clause negates, qualifies, or somehow limits the other (e.g., "this one big, but this one small", "the dog barks, but he doesn't bite"). Epistemic: Epistemic refers to mental states of affairs (with verbs such as know, think, remember, wonder) about an event or state described in the complement (e.g., "know what this is:, "I think I can put him in the house"). As such, it is a type of state, but is here classified separately. Utterances placed in this category are usually complex sentences, but some simple sentences such as "I know her" or those involving ellipsis (e.g., "I know it") may be found; these are routines in early language development. Specification: Utterances in specification category indicate a particular person, object, or event. Forms coding specification include contrastive use of the demonstrative pronouns this versus that if placed before a noun or produced with contrastive stress (e.g., "this dog is big, but not that one") and the use of the articles /the/ versus /a/. (Not all uses of demonstrative pronouns specify particular instances: demonstrative pronouns are used as subjects of copular sentences to code existence and stative relations without contrastive meaning). Eventually, specification involves the joining of two clauses, one of which specifies or describes an object or person in terms of function, place, or activity (e.g., "that the man who drives the truck", "the couch that goes in the corner" "it looks like a fishing thing and you fish with it"). Communication: Utterances placed in the communication category contain a verb that codes a communicative act, while the compliment describes what is to be communicated. Early communication verbs include /say/ and /tell/ (e.g., "tell mommy I have to finish this", "mommy said not to do that")....