Comprehension of deictic locatives: The object “Behind” it

Forty-eight adult subjects were tested for their comprehension of the locative prepositionsin front of, in back of, ahead of, andbehind in an object manipulation task using two sets of referent objects: fronted and nonfronted. Nonfronted (deictic) objects were employed to verify a locative comprehension model (the canonical encounter) proposed by H. Clark. Results indicated near unanimous interpretation under fronted object conditions, while use of nonfronted objects resulted in inconsistent responses not uniformly supportive of the canonical encounter model. An alternative comprehension strategy is suggested. Implications of results to developmental and disordered language studies are discussed.

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