Differences in the Comprehension of the Syntactic Structures of the Slovenian Language by Children Aged 4 to 6 Years

Otroci v prvih šestih letih svojega življenja izjemno napredujejo pri usvajanju skladnje. Od stavkov z dvema stavčnima členoma preidejo na stavke s tremi stavčnimi členi, začnejo razlikovati med ednino in množino ter usvajati kvantifikatorje in nikalne stavke. Ko razvijejo slovnične morfeme in različne stavčne strukture, začnejo uporabljati kompleksne povedi oz. združevati in sestavljati stavke v povedi. V otrokovem jezikovnem razvoju velja splošno pravilo, da vedno več razume, kot izraža. Ravno razumevanje je večkrat težje oceniti, saj je napredno, abstraktno in zelo individualno, poleg tega nanj vplivajo različni dejavniki, kot so kontekst, kognitivni koncepti itd. Zato smo v naši raziskavi empirično, s testom za razumevanje gramatike (TROG-2:SLO), ki smo ga prevedli in prilagodili iz hrvaščine, preverili razlike v razumevanju skladenjskih struktur pri otrocih med četrtim in šestim letom. V raziskavo smo vključili 120 enojezičnih otrok tipičnega razvoja, ki kot materni jezik usvajajo slovenščino, in sicer po 30 otrok iz vsake izmed naslednjih starostnih skupin: 40–45 let, 46–411 let, 50–55let in 56–511 let. Ugotovili smo, da je prišlo do statistično pomembnih razlik med skupinami pri krajevnih stavkih z v in na, stavkih SVO, stavkih s štirimi besednimi zvezami in pri nikalnih stavkih z dvema členoma. To nakazuje, da otroci v tem obdobju napredujejo v razumevanju teh struktur. Po drugi strani so rezultati pokazali, da pri razumevanju trdilnih stavkov z dvema členoma ni prišlo do statistično pomembnih razlik, saj otroci to strukturo (kot kažejo tudi mediane rezultatov) usvojijo že pred četrtim letom. Do statistično pomembnih razlik prav tako ni prišlo pri krajevnih stavkih z nad in pod, stavkih OVS, stavkih z elipso, odvisnih stavkih, nikalnih stavkih z več elementi in stavkih z osebkom oz. predmetom v ednini oz. množini. Te strukture so za otroke težke in kompleksne, zato potrebujejo še nekaj časa, da jih usvojijo. Ugotovili smo tudi, da otroci med 56 in 511 letom bolje razumejo središčno kot desno vstavljene oziralne odvisnike. Poleg tega so rezultati pokazali, da vse skupine bolje razumejo kvantifikator vsi kot kvantifikator večina.Children make tremendous progress in syntax during the first six years of life. For example, in the first years, they move from two-word sentences to three-word sentences, begin to distinguish between singular and plural forms, and understand negative clauses and various quantifiers. As children develop, they begin to use different grammatical morphemes and form more complex sentences by combining different clauses. A commonly accepted rule in children\u27s language development is that comprehension precedes production. However, comprehension is often difficult to evaluate because it is advanced, abstract, and extremely individual. Moreover, it is affected by various factors such as context and cognitive concepts, etc. Therefore, we wanted to empirically investigate the differences between children\u27s comprehension of syntactic structures between the age of four and six. There were 120 monolingual Slovene-speaking children included in the study30 children from each of the following age groups: 40-45 years, 46-411 years, 50-55 years and 56-511 years. We found out that there were statistically significant differences between the groups in the understanding of the sentences with in and on, SVO sentences, four-word sentences, and negative two-words sentences. This suggests that children are making progress in understanding these structures during this period. On the other hand, the results showed no statistically significant differences in the comprehension of affirmative two-word sentences. From the median, we can conclude that children comprehend this structure before the age of four. There were also no statistically significant differences for the following sentences: sentences with above and under, sentences with ellipses, relative clauses, negation structures with more negation elements, and sentences with object or subject in singular or plural. The reason for this is the complexity of these structures. Since these structures are difficult for children, they need more time to acquire them. We also found that children between the age of 56 and 511 find it easier to understand the right-branching relative clause than the middle-branching relative clause. Finally, all age groups performed better when confronted with a quantifier all than with most