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One of the problems English-speaking children have to sort out when they're
learning complex sentences is which way round things go. Take these four
cases.
1. Mary laughed, as the clock struck three.
2. As the clock struck three, Mary laughed.
3. The clock struck three, as Mary laughed.
4. As Mary laughed,the clock struck three.
Whatis the child to make of this? Do these sentences mean the same thing, or
not? You and I know that, apartfrom slight differences in emphasis,there's no
change in meaning. Children should be able to work this out for themselves in a
fairly short time.
In fact, sentences like these are all learned during the pre-school years, but not
at the same time. Children seem to find 1 easier than 2, and 3 easier than 4, and
thus say 1 and 3 earlier. Why is this ? Basically because children like to have the
is main point in a sentence said first.In 1 and 2, "Mary laughing" is the main point
(the "main clause" in the sentence, grammar books would say).In 3 and i, "the
clock striking" is the main point. Putting first the less important point(the
"subordinate clause," which always begins with the connecting word)is something
they prefer to do later.
These sentences don't present much of a problem because the meaning is the
same each time. However, other connecting words which express time are much
more difficult to sort out --- before and after,in particular. Let's begin with
before, which is fairly straight forward.
Mary laughed, before the clock struck three.
Before the clock struck three, Mary laughed.
So far, so good. You'd expect children to learn the first before the second, on
the above principle.
Now let's turn to after.
Mary laughed, after the clock struck three.
After the clock struck three, Mary laughed.
Here a complication sets in. You'd expect children to have no trouble with the
first of these, because "Mary laughing" comes first, and that's the main clause.
But they do have trouble.
You can try this experiment on pre-school children,to show thatthere's a
problem. What they have to do is carry out your instructions in the order you
say. Start with an easy sequence.
"Touch your nose and then touch your tummy."
Do a few of these, so that the child gets the idea. Then switch to after.
"Touch your nose after you touch yourtummy."
You'll find that the children will still touch their nose first, even though, your
sentence asked them to touch their tummy first.
That's the trouble with after, when it comes in the second part of the sentence
It's the second thing that's said butthe first thing that happens.It's a back-to-
front way of saying things. And, not surprisingly, children don't much like it
They assume that the first thing that's said happens first;the second thing that's
said happens second. They follow the order in which you mention things.
Now look at this sentence the other way round:
"After you touch your tummy,touch your nose."
This is much easierfor children to cope with. The order ofthe clauses corre-
spends to the order of events, so that's all right. However, you'll notice that the
main clause doesn't come first, so some children will still find this slightly compli-
cated.
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