The article observes studies of word categorization in 3- to 4-months-old infants questioning their main conclusion that young infants may categorize words themselves. The review shows that there is no bilateral communication between them and adults as well as any perceptual interaction that can help infants acquire language. And yet language…

An extensive body of research claims that labels facilitate categorisation, highlight the commonalities between objects and act as invitations to form categories for young infants before their first birthday. While this may indeed be a reasonable claim, we argue that it is not justified by the experiments described in the research. We report on a…

Eighteen-month-old children performed sorting tasks and their parents completed checklists of words used by the children. Children who performed exhaustive grouping, or grouping of objects of different kinds in different locations, were reported as using more words than children who did not perform exhaustive grouping. (BC)

Changes in children's categorization behavior between 15 and 21 months of age and the relation of these changes to developments in language, object permanence, and means-end understanding are reported. (PCB)

Observation of mothers and their two-year-olds (N=10) in routine, free play, and novel discourse settings suggested that object labelling was more varied in natural than in experimental settings. Basic level tokens were less prevalent and subordinate level term usage was more common in the routine and novel contexts. (Author/CB)

Studied semantic and cognitive development of Korean-speaking and English-speaking children. Found that categorization and a naming spurt emerged later in Korean speakers than in English speakers, while means-ends abilities and success/failure words emerged earlier in Korean speakers than in English speakers. Also, Korean-speaking mothers…