Processes of interpretation and differentiation of syntactic constructions in schoolchildren

Abstract

The results of an empirical study of differentiation and interpretation of sentences that are different by their syntactic structure and close or identical by their context in schoolchildren are presented. The study was conducted in the context of the author’s theory of the development of language competence as a psychological system. This system includes three basis components: verbal experience, knowledge about language acquired through learning and linguistic intuition (a sense of language). The method of the individual experiment designed by the author was used. 336 students of VII-X grades took part in the study. Four ways of solving semantic and syntactic problems by schoolchildren were identified. These ways differ depending on a) students’ orientation towards particular signs of the sentence and/or their combination; b) the ratio of knowledge about language acquired through learning and verbal experience content; c) the existence of relationships between language competence and other competences of a language speaker.