Subject-verb agreement with present and imperfect tenses: A developmental study from 2nd to 7th grade |
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| Authors: | Isabelle Negro Lucile Chanquoy |
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| Institution: | 1. University of Bourgogne, Duon, France
2. University of Paul Valéry, Montpellier, France
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| Abstract: | In French, a verb always agrees in number with its subject. The agreement rule is regularly applied. However, in specific conditions, agreement errors occur. These errors consist in agreeing the verb with the local noun, instead of with the first occurring noun, which is the subject, when two nouns differing in number precede the verb. Currently, one of the most powerful hypotheses to explain this kind of errors suggests that subject-verb agreement errors result from a temporary overload in working memory. In this regard, a developmental study, combined with an analysis of the differences between tenses of the French indicative has been led. We hypothesized a decrease of agreement errors with children’s grades and that the agreement with the imperfect tense may have a lesser cognitive cost than the agreement with the present. The objective of this work was thus to study the management of subject-verb agreement in children from 2nd to 7th grades (between the age of 7 and 12), for the present and the imperfect. The results confirmed that the imperfect is acquired more rapidly than the present. The cognitive cost of the agreement would be lower with the imperfect than with the present. These data were analyzed in the framework of the knowledge development model proposed by Anderson (1983). |
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