Can 6- and 8-year-olds (and adults) comprehend common instrument verbs when extended to novel situations? Participants heard eight unusual extensions of common verbs and were asked to paraphrase the verbs' meanings. Half of the verbs used were specified instrument verbs that include the name of the instrument used to perform the action (e.g., a vacuum is used to vacuum); the other half were open instrument verbs (e.g., write) whose function can be performed with a range of objects. Results suggest that children's ability to interpret verb extensions increases with age, that open instrument verb extensions were more difficult to comprehend than specified instrument verb extensions and that performance on verb extension correlates with scores on a standardized test of language acquisition. Verb knowledge continues to develop well beyond the preschool years.

中文翻译：

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用我的嘴吸尘？：儿童理解熟悉动词的新扩展的能力

6 岁和 8 岁的孩子（和成年人）在扩展到新情况时能理解常用的工具动词吗？参与者听到了常见动词的八种不同寻常的扩展，并被要求解释动词的含义。使用的动词中有一半是指定的工具动词，其中包括用于执行动作的工具的名称（例如，真空用于真空）；另一半是开放式工具动词（例如，写），其功能可以用一系列对象来执行。结果表明，儿童解释动词扩展的能力随着年龄的增长而增加，开放式工具动词扩展比指定的工具动词扩展更难理解，并且动词扩展的表现与语言习得标准化测试的分数相关。