Abstract
Twenty-four children between the ages of 2 1/2 and 5 years were given paint boxes such that they either shared one box between two or owned one box each. They were then asked to point to the boxes as specified by possessive pronouns: either plural possessive pronouns or pairs of singular possessive pronouns. The use of plural possessive pronouns adversely affected performance in all groups, but the type of ownership of the paint boxes did not. The results also suggest that the third-person pronouns cause fewest problems for children while second-person pronouns cause most. The findings are discussed in terms of the order of acquisition of plural pronouns, and the reasons that plural pronouns should cause more problems than singular possessive pronouns.
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Wilkins, S.J., Rogers, D.R. Possessive pronouns: Why are plurals harder?. J Psycholinguist Res 16, 551–561 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01067084
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01067084