Research into the influence of the semantic aspect on the understanding of sentences

Abstract

In this studyJhe author gives a survey of recent investigations on the effects of semantics on the understanding of sentences. This kind of investigation mainly relates to the period of childhood. In the process of understanding a sentence, besides syntax, semantics are also present, which influence the interpretation of the sentence and are very essential, especially during young formative years (from 2 to 4 years). Practically all quoted investigations agree that at the beginning of speech development, the strategy of de-coding semantic information for the understanding of the sentence is the main strategy which children use, regardless which language they speak. It is not until after 4 years of age (in some languages even later) that the role of the strategy of de-coding semantic information is taken over by other strategies, primarily the strategy of de-coding syntax (de-coding information of word order in the sentence; de-coding case-morphological information; de-coding information about accent in the sentence, etc.)