Denials in Young Children from a Cross-linguistic Perspective

Abstract

AKIYAMA, M. MICHAEL. Denials in Young Children from a Cross-linguistic Perspective. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1985, 56, 95-102. A universality hypothesis of denial stating that children should deny statements such as A ship is large in a similar manner across languages was tested. One form of denial is semantic denial, which uses an antonym adjective (e.g., A ship is small). Another form is syntactic denial, which uses a negative (e.g., A ship is not large). 32 English-speaking children of ages 4 and 5 and 32 Japanese-speaking children of ages 4 and 5 were asked to say the opposite of statements. The statements varied in truth value and unmarked-marked membership of antonym pairs. English-speaking children of age 4 used semantic denials more than 50% of the time, whereas their Japanese counterparts used semantic denials less than 25% of the time. There was less contrast between the 2 groups of 5-year-old children, but the same trend was present. The findings did not support the universality hypothesis but implied language-specific aspects in the process of denial. The findings were also interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that Japanese-speaking children derive negative knowledge, such as I am not a baby, in verifying false affirmative statements, such as You are a baby.