The Effects of Verbs and Case Markers on Young Children’s Social Relational Analogy
AUTHOR : 안소영, 박유정
INFORMATION : page. 95~106 / 2026 Vol.33 No.3
ABSTRACT
Young children’s analogical reasoning has primarily been examined within the physical domain, and whether linguistic cues such as verbs and case markers facilitate analogical reasoning in the social domain remains unexamined. This study investigates whether verbs and case markers facilitate young children’s social relational analogy. Children aged 3.5 to 4.5 years (N = 204) from the Seoul metropolitan area individually completed a social analogy task. Through three experiments, we examined the effect of verbs, the additive effect of case markers, and whether the effect of case markers stemmed from the mere mention of individuals or from the grammatical information that they convey. Children in the novel-verb condition performed significantly better than those in the no-cue condition. Children in the novel-verb-plus-case-marker condition performed significantly better than those in the novel-verb condition, and outperformed those in the condition where a novel verb was presented but case markers were omitted and only the individuals were mentioned. These findings extend the facilitative effect of relational language to the social domain and provide empirical evidence that verbs and case markers facilitate young children’s social relational analogy, with implications for education and intervention supporting young children’s understanding of social relationships.