한국 유아의 친족어 습득에 관한 연구

초록

This study seeks to examine the factors involved in the successful acquisition of 18 Korean kinship terms by young children in Korea. The participants were a total of four-hundred young children aged 3 to 6 (100 children from each of the four age groups). The study method involved showing the children family trees and explaining the relationship between family members and then asking the children to describe their relationships using kinship terms. The results reveal that the number of kinship terms used by the children increases with age, and that the degree of acquisition advances significantly at the ages of 5 and 6. The results also showed that even at the age of 6 the participants had not acquired three kinship terms of address for cousins. The degree of acquisition was not related to the gender of the children whereas the degree of the children’ understanding and use of semantic complexity was predictive of the acquisition of kinship terms.

키워드