A conjunction shows the relationship between a word and phrase or between sentences. It creates a logical connection between a pair of sentences and reveals the relationship in terms of meaning. There are four types of conjunctions; connective endings...
A conjunction shows the relationship between a word and phrase or between sentences. It creates a logical connection between a pair of sentences and reveals the relationship in terms of meaning. There are four types of conjunctions; connective endings, conjunctive adverbs, coordinating conjunctions, and transitional phrases. These conjunctions enable people to extend sentences and create correct sentences by smoothly connecting a pair of clauses. However, the use of a conjunction without a specific purpose can cause a misunderstanding in terms of the relationship between the two sentences and can make a paragraph look awkward.
Conjunctions affect children with language disorders or learning disabilities, and children who cannot properly understand the use of conjunctions usually show a low performance in reading and comprehension.
Based on this significant point, the purpose of this study was to examine the characteristic use of conjunctions by normal children, ages 5, 7, and 9, in a free-speaking environment using two tasks; ‘Story retelling’ and ‘Telling Personal stories’.
In the results of the study, there was no significant difference in the use of conjunctive adverbs by age, but the 5-year-olds used significantly fewer connective endings, than the 7 and 9-year-olds. The 5-year-olds also used fewer whole sentences than the 7 and 9-year-olds.
Second, after the overall frequency of use of conjunctive adverbs and connective endings in the sentences was analyzed, there was no significant difference in the use ratio of conjunctive adverbs. However, the 5-year-olds used fewer connective endings than the 7 and 9-year olds. And according to the results of an analysis by words, there was not a significant difference in either conjunctive adverbs or connective endings.
Third, in the use ratio of conjunctive adverbs by individual types, the 5-year-olds used the word ‘but’ less frequently than the 9-year-olds, but there was no significant difference in the use of the other conjunctive adverbs.
Regarding the use ratio of different connective endings by age, depending on individual kinds, the 5-year-olds used the words ‘and so’ significantly less frequently than the 7-year-olds, and the word ‘though’ significantly less frequently than the 9-year-olds. There was no significant difference in the use ratio of connective endings by individual kinds in other cases.
As a whole, the analysis of the conjunctions shows that the conjunctive adverbs and connective endings mainly used by three groups are relatively simple and that the younger the children are, the fewer types of conjunctions they use. All three groups used more connective endings than conjunctive adverbs, and the difference increased as the children got older.
This trend may suggest that children use connective endings more frequently than conjunctive adverbs becausethe sentences they use get longer as they get older. The results of this analysis may aid future researchers in generally understanding the characteristic use of Korean conjunctions by children.