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Acquiring and Using Words to Express Logical Relationships

  • Chapter
The Development of Word Meaning

Part of the book series: Springer Series in Cognitive Development ((2116))

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Abstract

This chapter considers children’s understanding of a small set of terms (before, after, because, so, if, but, and or) that function to express relationships between propositions. Because these terms permit the linguistic expression of the logical structures central to human cognition, their acquisition has been of concern to investigators with a variety of interests, including language acquisition, the development of logical reasoning, and general cognitive development. Understanding how these terms are acquired ultimately contributes to our knowledge of the relationships among language, logic, and cognitive development by indicating the ways in which nonlinguistic representations are integrated with linguistic knowledge to produce descriptions of logical relationships.

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Authors
  1. Lucia A. French
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Southern Methodist University, 75275, Dallas, Texas, USA

    Stan A. Kuczaj II

  2. Department of Psychology, Roehampton Institute Digby Stuart College, SW15 5PH, London, UK

    Martyn D. Barrett

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© 1986 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.

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French, L.A. (1986). Acquiring and Using Words to Express Logical Relationships. In: Kuczaj, S.A., Barrett, M.D. (eds) The Development of Word Meaning. Springer Series in Cognitive Development. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4844-6_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4844-6_12

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-9326-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-4844-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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