Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T17:40:08.777Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Nouns in early lexicons: evidence, explanations and implications*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Katherine Nelson ,
June Hampson  and
Lea Kessler Shaw
Katherine Nelson*
Affiliation:
City University of New York Graduate Center
June Hampson
Affiliation:
Vassar College
Lea Kessler Shaw
Affiliation:
City University of New York Graduate Center
*
Development Psychology, City University of New York Graduate School and University Center, 33 West 42nd St, New York, NY, 10036, USA.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Many theories of grammatical and lexical acquisition assume that children learn predominantly nouns, and specifically names of objects, when they first begin to acquire words in the second year. We show that the noun bias in early vocabularies is far from universal, and that it rests only in part on the acquisition of object names. An analysis of vocabulary composition from 45 children at 1;8 indicates that more nouns are acquired than all other word classes, but that of the nouns acquired only about half are the names of basic level object classes (BLOCS). An examination of the use of nouns in mother-child discourse shows that non-object words referencing locations, actions and events, for example, are used in distinctive pragmatic and grammatical contexts which might enable a child to grasp the word's use and eventually its meaning. It is concluded that a theory of lexical acquisition in discourse context is required to explain word learning at all levels and for all word types. Implications for semantic bootstrapping theories are considered.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , February 1993 , pp. 61 - 84
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

[*]

Our thanks to Michael Maratsos for insightful comments on a previous draft of this paper. We also thank Calliope Haritos for assistance with coding and analysis.

References

REFERENCES

Bates, E., Bretherton, I., Shore, C. & Snyder, L. (1984). Early language inventory. Part 1: Vocabulary checklist. University of California at San Diego.Google Scholar
Bates, E., Bretherton, I. & Snyder, L. (1988). From first words to grammar: individual differences and dissociable mechanisms. New York: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Bloom, L. (1973). One word at a time: the use of single word utterances before syntax. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Bloom, P. (1990). Syntactic distinctions in child language. Journal of Child Language 17, 343–56.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bowerman, M. (1976). Semantic factors in the acquisition of rules for word use and sentence construction. In Morehead, D. M. & Morehead, A. E. (eds), Normal and deficient child language. Baltimore: University Park Press.Google Scholar
Brown, R. (1958). How shall a thing be called? Psychological Review 65, 14–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruner, J. (1983). Child's talk. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Carey, S. (1978). The child as word learner. In Halle, M., Bresnan, J. & Miller, G. A. (eds), Linguistic theory and psychological reality. New York: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Dale, P. S., Bates, E., Reznick, J. S. & Morisset, C. (1989). The validity of a parent report instrument of child language at 20 months. Journal of Child Language 16, 239–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dromi, E. (1987). Early lexical development. Cambridge: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Dunlea, A. (1989). Vision and the emergence of meaning: blind and sighted children's early language. New York: C.U.P.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gentner, D. (1982). Why nouns are learned before verbs: linguistic relativity versus natural partitioning. In Kuczaj, S. A. II (ed.), Language development. Vol. 2: Language, thought and culture. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Gentner, D. (1988). Cognitive and linguistic determinism: object reference and relational reference. Paper presented at the Boston Child Language Conference.Google Scholar
Goldfield, B. & Snow, C. (1985). Individual differences in language acquisition. In Gleason, J. (ed.), Language development. Columbus: Merrill Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, S., Seligman, M. E. P. & Gelman, R. (1976). Language in the two-year-old. Cognition 4, 189–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gopnik, A. & Choi, S. (1990). Language and cognition. First Language 10, 199–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gordon, P. (1985). Evaluating the semantic categories hypothesis: the case of the count/mass distinction. Cognition 20, 209–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hall, D. G. (1991). Acquiring proper nouns for familiar and unfamiliar animate objects: two-year-olds' word-learning biases. Child Development 62, 1142–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hampson, J. (1989). Elements of style: maternal and child contributions to the referential and expressive styles of language acquisition. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, City University of New York Graduate Center.Google Scholar
Heath, S. B. (1983). Ways with words: language, life, and work in communities and classrooms. Cambridge: C.U.P.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackendoff, R. S. (1983). Semantics and cognition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Katz, N., Baker, E. & Macnamara, J. (1974). What's in a name? A study of how children learn common and proper names. Child Development 45, 469–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landau, B. & Gleitman, L. (1985). Language and experience: evidence from the blind child. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Levy, E. & Nelson, K. (in press). Words in discourse. A dialectical approach to the acquisition of meaning and use. Journal of Child Language.Google Scholar
Lyons, J. (1977). Semantics. Vol. 1. Cambridge: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Macnamara, J. (1982). Names for things. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Maratsos, M. P. (1982). The child's construction of grammatical categories. In Wanner, E. & Gleitman, L. (eds), Language acquisition: the state of the art. New York: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Maratsos, M. P. (1988). Crosslinguistic analysis, universals, and language acquisition. In Kessel, F. (ed.), The development of language and language researchers: essays in honor of Roger Brown. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Maratsos, M. P. (1991). How the acquisition of nouns may be different from that of verbs. In Krasnegor, N. A., Rumbaugh, D. M., Schiefelbusch, R. L. & Studdert-Kennedy, M. (eds), Biological and behavioral determinants of language development. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Markman, E. M. (1987). How children constrain the possible meanings of words. In Neisser, U. (ed.), Concepts and conceptual development: ecological and intellectual factors in categorisation. New York: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Markman, E. M. (1991). The whole object, taxonomic, and mutual exclusivity assumptions as initial constraints on word meanings. In Gelman, S. A. & Byrnes, J. P. (eds), Perspectives on language and thought: interrelations in development. New York: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Nelson, K. (1973). Structure and strategy in learning to talk. Society for Research in Child Development Monographs 38 (1–2), Serial no. 149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, K. (1974). Concept, word and sentence: interrelations in development. Psychological Review 81, 267–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, K. (1985). Making sense: the acquisition of shared meaning. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Nelson, K. (1986). Event knowledge: structure and function in development. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Nelson, K. (1991). The matter of time: interdependencies between language and concepts. In Gelman, S. A. & Byrnes, J. P. (eds), Perspectives on language and thought: interrelations in development. New York: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Ninio, A. (1980). Ostensive definition in vocabulary teaching. Journal of Child Language 7, 565–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ninio, A. & Bruner, J. S. (1978). The achievements and antecedents of labelling. Journal of Child Language 5, 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ochs, E. & Schiefflin, B. B. (1984). Language acquisition and socialization: three developmental stories and their implications. In Schweder, R. A. & LeVine, R. A. (eds), Culture theory: essays on mind, self, and emotion. New York: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Pinker, S. (1984). Language learnability and language development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Rosch, E. (1978). Principles of categorization. In Rosch, E. & Lloyd, B. (eds), Cognition and categorization. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Soja, N. (1990). Semantic inferences: the role of count/mass syntax. Papers and Reports on Child Language Development 29, 104–111.Google Scholar
Sternberg, R. J. & Powell, J. S. (1983). Comprehending verbal comprehension. American Psychologist 38, 878–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thorndike, E. L. & Lorge, I. (1944). The teacher's word book of 30,000 words. New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University.Google Scholar
Tomasello, M. & Todd, J. (1983). Joint attention and lexical acquisition style. First Language 4, 197–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar