Ostensive definitions of words are ambiguities as to their referent. In a study of infant-mother dyads engaged in looking at picture books, 95 percent of ostensive definitions referred to the whole object depicted rather than parts, attributes, or actions. When parts were named, ambiguity was avoided by naming the part and the whole. (PJM)

Reports results of a longitudinal study testing the acquisition of restrictions of the use of pronouns in children, first as 9 year olds and later as 11 year olds. (AM)

The role of a strategy of reduplication in phonological acquisition and behavior was examined in terms of: (1) the relationship between adoption of this strategy and failure to produce nonreduplicated multisyllabic forms and final consonants, and (2) the role of reduplication in production constraints. (Author/AM)

Thirty children with a mean length of utterance ranging from 1.00 to 4 and an age range of 1.7 to 5.5 were tested for comprehension of two-noun possessive phrases. Three types of possessive relationships were used to uncover children's knowledge of the semantics and syntax of English possession. (Author/AM)

Discusses information theory and the notions of uncertainty and semantic choice in child language. (AM)

This article discusses a study designed to ascertain the comprehension of the role of "because" in a sentence in children between the ages of 5;8 and 10;11. (CFM)

Discusses children's concepts about stories, by examining interview responses. (AA)

Reports on a study of three children's single-word responses to parents' questions, focusing on the interrelations between children's ability to answer questions, the types of semantic content used in appropriate and inappropriate answers, and questions asked by the parents. (Author/AM)

Describes study of relationship between seven specific factors and receptive language development of fourth and seventh grade culturally-different students. (JM)

A production-based method of investigating children's understanding of deictic verbs is described. Use of "come/go" and "bring/take" by 4-7-year-olds is compared with Clark and Garnica's 1974 study. Data reveal different facts about verb acquisition processes and order. (CHK)

Contradicts a previous assertion by C. Tanz that children commit substitution errors usually using objective pronoun forms for nominative ones. Examples from Dutch and German provide evidence that substitutions are made in both directions. (CHK)

Examines the link between music and language development in early childhood. Investigates three aspects in developmental processes: (1) early sound perception; (2) premusical and prelinguistic vocalization; and (3) the emergence of singing and speech. Discusses linguistic and musical environmental stimulation such as baby talk and lullabies.…

Three studies examined the developmental relationship between early linguistic and cognitive achievements. Findings showed that children's ability to classify objects in a spatial or temporal order was independent of advances in productive vocabulary growth, suggesting that developments in categorization and naming depend on abilities in addition…

Pointing and gestures in 47 infants was investigated in 2 experiments contrasting declarative-referential vs. imperative-instrumental conditions of communication, and another study of 7 infants examined prepointing transitional phenomena. Results show gestures are produced differently in experimental conditions: reaching is only produced in…

Two experiments showed two-year-olds pairs of videotaped actions, one familiar and one novel, and asked them to select referents of novel verbs. For actions not involving objects, children tended to select the novel action over the familiar one in each of four experiments. For actions involving objects, novel actions were chosen more often than…