Understanding negative sentences

master's thesis

• Title: Understanding negative sentences : a comparison between English and Croatian preschool children
• Title (croatian): Razumijevanje negacije : usporedba djece predškolske dobi govornika engleskog i hrvatskog jezika
• Author: Helena Lukin
• Mentor: Irena Zovko Dinković (mentor)
• Committee member: Jasenka Čengić (predsjednik povjerenstva)
• Committee member: Ivana Bašić (član povjerenstva)
• Granter: University of Zagreb; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; (Department of English language and literature); Zagreb
• Defense date and country: 2022-05-25, Croatia
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: HUMANISTIC SCIENCES; Philology; Anglistics

Abstract

“No” is one of the first and most important words children learn to say and yet, little is known about their ability to comprehend and produce negative sentences even though negation is one of the fundamental features of human language structure. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to explore English and Croatian preschool children’s ability to understand simple, as well as complex negative sentences. The comparison between these two languages is intriguing because they have diametrically opposite systems of negation. Nevertheless, the data show that, even though there are fundamental differences between these two negative systems, the children’s responses were quite similar in nature. Both English and Croatian children struggled to understand negative sentences in which there were multiple negative markers and they often assigned wrong interpretations to them. Our findings suggest that children start acquiring negation in a similar fashion, regardless of their linguistic background, and it is only after being exposed to the language-specific negative forms that they start understanding and implementing them in their speech.

Abstract (croatian)

“Ne” je jedna od prvih i najvažnijih riječi koju djeca nauče izgovoriti međutim, malo toga je poznato o njihovoj sposobnosti razumijevanja kao i sastavljanja negativnih rečenica iako je negacija jedna od osnovnih kategorija ljudske jezične strukture. Stoga je cilj ovog diplomskog rada istražiti kako engleska i hrvatska djeca predškolske dobi razumiju jednostavne kao i složene negativne rečenice. Usporedba ovih dvaju jezika je intrigantna jer koriste dijametralno suprotne sisteme negacije. Ipak, podaci nam govore da su djeca pokazala izrazito slične tendencije razumijevanja negacije. I engleskoj i hrvatskoj djeci bilo je teško razumijeti negativne rečenice u kojima je bilo više negativnih riječi i često bi ih netočno interpretirali. Naša studija pokazuje da djeca, bez obzira na njihovu lingvističku pozadinu, započinju proces učenja negacije na sličan način. Tek nakon što su izloženi gramatičkim pravilima specifičnima za njihov izvorni jezik, započinju pravilno razumjeti i implementirati negaciju u svom govoru.

• Keywords: negation; preschool children; Croatian; English; experiment
• Keywords (croatian): negacija; predškolska djeca; hrvatski; engleski; eksperiment
• Language: english
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:131:773309
• Study programme: Title: English Language and Literature (double major); specializations in: Linguistics, Literature and Culture, Translation, TEFL; Course: Linguistics; Study programme type: university; Study level: graduate; Academic / professional title: magistar/magistra engleskog jezika i književnosti (magistar/magistra engleskog jezika i književnosti)
• Type of resource: Text
• File origin: Born digital
• Access conditions: Open access
• Created on: 2022-05-27 11:04:21