Abstract
Effects of the distance on the comprehension of anaphoric demonstratives. In a previous study on anaphoric acquisition in Spanish-speaking children, it was found that the anaphoric relation of demonstrative pronouns "éste/aquél" (this/that) were yet not to be acquired. This study examines the acquisition of this anaphora at a later stage of development in children and the effect of the distance between its elements. The relation in question occurs between two possible antecedents and a demonstrative pronoun, i.e. María y su compañera Eva hacen los deberes en casa de ésta/aquélla. Estudied the effects of the distance between the demonstrative and the antecedents (short vs. long), the distance between the two antecedents (short vs. long), and the proximal/nonproximal distinction of the demonstrative (éste vs. aquél). The experiment was carried out on 237 children of both sexes, ranging from 10 to 13 years. The children were presented with twenty-six short texts by means of a pencil and paper task. Four different versions were redacted from each one, combining the independent variables. The results showed that: a) The comprehension of this anaphoric relation begins at the age of 10 (63% rate of success), increasing by the age of 12 and 13 to a success rate of 70% in both cases. b) The demonstrative pronoun éste (this) is better understood than aquél (that) in every level. c) The comprehension of demonstrative is greater when the distance between the pronoun and the antecedents is short.d ) A significant interaction exists between the distance between the two antecedents and the distance between the antecedents and the demonstrative. Comprehension increases when the former distance is long and the later is short. In those conditions the éste/aquél contrast is favored and the properties of the deictic contrast in physical space are desplaced to the anaphoric space of the text.
