| Chapter 2: | Background Study |
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naming objects. The children, however, unlike the adults, frequently used the definite article rather than the indefinite article for introducing a new referent, and their referring expressions were for the most part definite. Walden also attributed this incorrect use of the definite article to the children’s egocentric viewpoint.
Zehler and Brewer (1982), however, argued against the egocentric point of view for its inadequacy in explanation. They suggested that the inappropriate use of the results from an overextension of a principle of shared knowledge found in adult article use, rather than the child’s inability or failure to consider the listener’s perspective. Zehler and Brewer obtained data from both adults and two age groups of children. The age range of the younger group of children was 2:4 to 2:11, and the age range of the older group of children was 3:0 to 3:5. Zehler and Brewer developed a new classification of English article usage by including a total of eight representative article usage categories based on three general usage types: introduction/anaphoric reference, context frame reference, and generic reference. According to Zehler and Brewer, in introduction/anaphoric usage, the articles are used either to introduce a new topic into the discourse or to make anaphoric reference back to a previously mentioned referent. In context frame usage, article selection is based on knowledge of typical objects and events without previous specific linguistic or nonlinguistic introduction of the referent. In generic usage, the articles are used to indicate reference to knowledge of conceptual classes and membership in these classes.
Zehler and Brewer counted and examined the definite article the, the indefinite article a, as well as the zero article in their data. They found an acquisition sequence of the article system in the following identifiable stages: Stage I was characterized by the initial use of a and null. Stage II featured the beginning of the use of the. Stage III was represented by the overuse of the. The overuse of the, however, was recognized only in the context-nonspecific category and after correct the usage had become stable as demonstrated in the accomplishment of 50% of accuracy. This led Zehler and Brewer to conclude that the overuse of the is not due to egocentrism, but rather due to the nature of the article system.