Table 3.
Examples of Stimuli Used in Experiments 1, 2, and 3
| Experiment 1: Pictures depicting simple events. 27 pictures organized in 9 sets of 3. (MacWhinney & Bates, 1978) | ||||
| Series | Structure | Sentence | ||
| 1 | AV | A (bear, mouse, rabbit) is crying. | ||
| 2 | AV | A boy is (running, swimming, skiing). | ||
| 3 | AVO | A (monkey, squirrel, rabbit) is eating a banana. | ||
| 4 | AVO | A boy is (kissing, hugging, kicking) a dog. | ||
| 5 | AVO | A girl is eating a/n (apple, lollypop, ice cream). | ||
| 6 | AVPL | A dog is (in, on, under) a car. | ||
| 7 | AVPL | A cat is on a (table, bed, chair). | ||
| 8 | AVOD | A woman is giving a (present, truck, mouse) to a girl. | ||
| 9 | AVOD | A cat is giving a flower to a (boy, rabbit, dog). | ||
| (A=Agent; V=Verb; O=Object; P=Preposition; L=Location; D=Dative) | ||||
| Experiment 2: Recorded sentences. 9 shown out of 54. (based on Slobin & Bever, 1982; Bates et al., 1987a) | ||||
| Agreement | Order | Animacy | Sentence | |
| Agree 0 | NNV | Animacy 0 | The cow the chicken is smelling. | |
| Agree 1 | NNV | Animacy 0 | The horse the goats is grabbing. | |
| Agree 2 | NNV | Animacy 0 | The pig the zebras are kissing. | |
| Agree 0 | NVN | Animacy 0 | The pig is grabbing the chicken. | |
| Agree 1 | NVN | Animacy 0 | The cow is kissing the goats. | |
| Agree 2 | NVN | Animacy 0 | The horse are smelling the zebras. | |
| Agree 0 | VNN | Animacy 0 | Is biting the horse the chicken. | |
| Agree 1 | VNN | Animacy 0 | Is eating the pig the goats. | |
| Agree 2 | VNN | Animacy 0 | Are pushing the cow the zebras. | |
| (N=Noun; V=Verb) | ||||
| Experiment 3: Recorded sentences. 9 shown out of 56. (based on Blackwell & Bates, 1995) | ||||
| Type of Error | Sentence | |||
| Agreement | * The women was drinking some wine while talking about the movie. | |||
| * The vine were growing a few red and yellow flowers. | ||||
| * The writer were holding a very big party. | ||||
| Word order | * Jane’s friends watching were some fireworks while standing on the hill. | |||
| * Those girls seeing were some old and famous silent movies. | ||||
| * She signing was her newest and biggest story collection. | ||||
| No error | The girls were eating some fries while waiting for their friends. | |||
| The man was playing both old and modern piano pieces. | ||||
| The artists were selling several small but expensive watercolor paintings. | ||||