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How the parts relate to the whole: Frequency effects on children's interpretations of novel compounds*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 September 2008
Abstract
This study explores different frequency effects on children's interpretations of novel noun–noun compounds (e.g. egg bag as ‘bag FOR eggs’). We investigated whether four- to five-year-olds and adults use their knowledge of related compounds and their modifier–head relations (e.g. sandwich bag (FOR) or egg white (PART-OF)) when explaining the meaning of novel compounds and/or whether they are affected by overall frequency of modifier–head relations in their vocabulary. Children's interpretations were affected by their experience with relations in compounds with the same head, but not by overall relation frequency. Adults' interpretations were affected by their experience with relations in compounds with the same modifier, suggesting that children and adults use similar but different knowledge to interpret compounds. Furthermore, only children's interpretations revealed an overuse of visually perceivable relations.
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- Copyright © 2008 Cambridge University Press
Footnotes
We would like to thank Helen Breadmore for her help in conducting the experiment and transcribing participants' responses and Harald Baayen for his help with the statistical analysis. This research was supported by a British Academy Joint Activities Grant, NSERC Discovery Grant 203054 and NSERC Discovery Grant 245058.
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