Theories of the acquisition of word meaning among children are reviewed and a case study of one child is reported. Three models of how the young child associates words with underlying concepts and conventional meanings are noted. While one model proposes that children initially overextend word meanings, the other two models propose that new words…

Analyzes early lexical and phonological development in three children from late babbling through the acquisition of 50 conventional words. Focuses on (1) the relationship between prelinguistic and linguistic vocalizations, (2) phonological development after the onset of speech, (3) patterns of lexical selection, (4) rate of lexical acquisition,…

This report on research in progress explores criteria for lexical innovation in children. Children, like adults, make use of a principle of conventionality (each word has one or more conventional meanings) and one of contrast (the conventional meanings of every two words contrast). Like adults, children coin words to fill lexical gaps, and they do…

Two experiments investigated 4- to 5-year olds' understanding of semantic relations and methods for incorporating new words into their lexicon. In one experiment, 24 children were shown a picture of a container and told that an object called "X" was hidden inside it. Children were asked questions about the object X and about…

Three experiments investigated the processes by which 2-year-olds acquire the language to express category hierarchies. The first experiment studied how children use current linguistic knowledge to constrain the potential meanings of new words. This experiment compared interpretations of new words given to objects the children could already name…

There are problems in interpreting the naming behavior of children. Children may misname a word because the word is absent from their vocabulary, because it is not yet firmly established, or because of a word retrieval or lexical assessing problem. Preliminary results are reported of an experimental technique designed to account for these…

Children's understanding of the epistemological terms "know" and "guess" was investigated in two studies with four- to ten-year-old subjects. Two adult players guessed at the location of a ball hidden in one of two boxes. On each trial the child was asked questions about "knowing" and "guessing" both before and after the guessing took place.…

A study investigated children's hypotheses about the meanings of novel verbs on the child's first exposure to the verb. The study focused on the properties (action, result, or instrument) ascribed to the verbs before any information was given about word meaning. Subjects were 3-year-olds, 5-year-olds, and adults. The stimuli were six sets of…

Discusses the audio and video-recorded longitudinal data from six infants with varying degrees of vision. The findings indicate that there are basic differences in early language, which appear to reflect differences in cognitive development. (SL)

A study of infant language acquisition investigated the possibility that perceptual or attentional tendencies may guide early word learning by directing infants' attention in linguistically relevant ways. In the experiment, infants aged 9 to 13 months watched a puppet show; with some children, sentences labeling either the objects (noun-frame…

In learning a language as a means of communication, children must first coin new word-forms to express meanings for words they do not yet know. Children learn at an early age that lexicon can be used creatively, and that creativity is not simply a matter of learning which word-paradigms are available in the language, but also learning adult…

A study examined how preschool children use information about linguistic contrast in learning new words. The 72 subjects were assigned to four groups to play a game. They were asked to get an unfamiliar item, one of nine swatches of different colors, shapes, and materials. In the first group, the children were told only one label (color, shape, or…

Dramatic play, an activity for which children show a natural inclination, provides kindergarten children with the opportunities for acquiring new vocabulary, extending word meaning, acquiring and practicing verbal expression and syntactical patterns, and gaining in language facility. In order to foster this language development, kindergarten…

A discussion of English native-language vocabulary acquisition in children takes a closer look at the assumption that vocabulary is learned by common association of word with event, focusing on the acquisition of verb meanings. The intuitive power of the view that words are learned by noticing real-world contingencies for their use is…

A study looks at young children's responses to tough movement structures, focusing on complements to "easy." The study examines the development of the two major types of rule usage: primitive and adult, and focuses on the inconsistent fluctuations between the primitive and adult levels. It is proposed that the source of complexity in…