Recent work showed that infants recognize and store function words starting from the age of 6–8 months. Using a visual fixation procedure, the present study tested whether French‐learning 14‐month‐olds have the knowledge of syntactic categories of determiners and pronouns, respectively, and whether they can use these function words for categorizing novel words to nouns and verbs. The prosodic characteristics of novel words stimuli for noun versus verb uses were balanced. The only distinguishing cue was the preceding determiners versus subject pronouns, the former being the most common for nouns and the latter the most common for verbs, i.e., Det + Noun, Pron + Verb. We expected that noun categorization may be easier than verb categorization because the co‐occurrence of determiners with nouns is more consistent than that of subject pronouns with verbs in French. The results showed that infants grouped the individual determiners as one common class, and that they appeared to use the determiners to categorize novel words into nouns. However, we found no evidence of verb categorization. Unlike determiners, pronouns were not perceived as a common syntactic class.

Rushen Shi

Andréane Melançon

Infancy

Infancy, the official journal of the International Society on Infant Studies, emphasizes the highest quality original research on normal and aberrant infant development during the first two years. Both human and animal research are included. In addition to regular length research articles and brief reports (3000-word maximum), the journal includes solicited target articles along with a series of commentaries; debates, in which different theoretical positions are presented along with a series of commentaries; and thematic collections, a group of three to five reports or summaries of research on the same issue, conducted independently at different laboratories, with invited commentaries.

Infancy, the official journal of the International Society on Infant Studies, focuses on high-quality original research regarding both normal and atypical infant development during the first two years of life. The journal includes both human and animal studies. In addition to regular-length research articles and brief reports (maximum 3000 words), it features solicited target articles, debates presenting different theoretical perspectives along with commentaries, and thematic collections comprising three to five independent research reports or summaries on the same issue, accompanied by invited commentaries.

《Infancy》是国际婴儿研究学会的官方期刊，专注于高质量的原创研究，涵盖正常和异常的婴儿发展，特别是在生命的前两年。期刊接受人类和动物的研究。除了常规的研究文章和简短报告（最多3000字），期刊还包括特邀的主题文章、辩论（不同理论观点的呈现及其评论）以及专题集合（由三到五篇独立于不同实验室进行的研究报告或总结组成，并附有特邀评论）。

Syntactic Categorization in French‐Learning Infants

Testing whether French-learning 14-month-olds have the knowledge of syntactic categories of determiners and pronouns, respectively, and whether they can use these function words for categorizing novel words to nouns and verbs found no evidence of verb categorization.

Syntactic Categorization in French‐Learning Infants

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Journal Info

Category	Quartile
PSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENTAL	3