We examined whether and how the degree of meaning overlap between morphologically related words influences sentence plausibility judgment in children. In two separate studies with kindergarten and second-graders, English-speaking and French-speaking children judged the plausibility of sentences that included two paired target words. Some of these word pairs were morphologically related, across three conditions with differing levels of meaning overlap: low (wait-waiter), moderate (fold-folder) and high (farm-farmer). In another two conditions, word pairs were related only by phonology (rock-rocket) or semantics (car-automobile). Children in both ages and languages demonstrated higher plausibility scores as meaning overlap increased between morphologically related words. Further, kindergarten children rated sentences that included word pairs with phonological overlap as more plausible than second-grade children, while second-grade children rated those with high meaning overlap as more plausible than kindergarten children. We interpret these findings in light of current models of morphological development.

我们研究了形态相关单词之间的含义重叠程度是否以及如何影响儿童对句子合理性的判断。在针对幼儿园和二年级学生的两项独立研究中，英语和法语儿童判断了包含两个配对目标词的句子的合理性。其中一些词对在形态上是相关的，跨越三种具有不同程度的含义重叠的条件：低（wait-waiter）、中（fold - folder）和高（farm - farmer）。在另外两种情况下，单词对仅通过音系（rock-rocket）或语义（car - automobile）相关。随着形态相关单词之间含义重叠的增加，不同年龄和语言的儿童都表现出更高的合理性分数。此外，幼儿园的孩子认为包含语音重叠的单词对的句子比二年级的孩子更合理，而二年级的孩子认为那些含义高度重叠的句子比幼儿园的孩子更合理。我们根据当前的形态发育模型解释这些发现。