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PubMed1995

Early lexical development: the contribution of parental labelling and infants' categorization abilities.

In the present longitudinal study, we examined changes in parental labelling and infants' categorization skills as potential predictors of vocabulary composition, the age of the naming explosion, and the acquisition of subordinate labels. Sixteen French- and English-speaking parent-child dyads were videotaped during a 20-minute free-play session every month beginning when the child was 1;0 and ending at 2;0. The children received object-manipulation tasks every three months and their vocabulary growth was recorded. Parental labelling practices were assessed monthly using a picture-book reading task. Both parental labelling and children's categorization skills predicted the content of children's lexicon, with children with more names in their vocabulary having better categorization skills. Furthermore, the naming explosion was found to coincide with improvement of categorization skills. These findings suggest that the influence of each factor varies as a function of the stage and aspect of lexical development considered.

Child Language↗
PubMed1991

Later rather than sooner: extralinguistic categories in the acquisition of Thai classifiers.

An experimental elicitation task with children between the ages of 1;8 and 11;3 shows that children learning Thai numerical classifiers begin with purely distributional information: specifically, (1) that classifiers must appear in the post-numeral position, and (2) that classifiers comprise a conventional, closed set of words. Semantic organizing features, such as salient features of the head noun's referent, appear later than these syntagmatic organizing features. Use of such semantic information is not an immature 'first guess' at grammatical categories, but rather, a necessary component of adult linguistic competence, because the categories are productive both for older children and for adults.

Child↗
PubMed1990

Can children use a verb without exposure to its argument structure?

We hypothesize that canonical sentence schemas (e.g. Agent-verb-Patient) can sometimes assign argument structure to verbs. In particular, they provide a default argument structure early in learning when a verb's lexical entry may record the nature of the action but lack a specific argument structure. To test the theory and its application to causative verb errors (e.g. stay it there), novel action verbs were modelled, some as causative, some as intransitive, and some unmarked for transitivity. Spontaneous usage was recorded, along with responses to agent-questions ('What is the [Agent] doing?') and patient-questions ('What is the [Patient] doing?'). Comparable data were obtained for familiar English verbs, some of fixed and some of optional transitivity. Subjects were willing to use all novel verbs both transitively and intransitively, although adults respected assigned transitivity more than children. All subjects largely respected the transitivity of familiar verbs. The discourse pressure of the agent- and patient-questions greatly affected observed transitivity. No evidence was found for the intransitive-to-causative derivational process postulated by Bowerman. We propose that the kind of causativity error observed by Bowerman is due to assignment of argument structure from canonical sentence schemas, especially under pressure of a need to make a sentence with a particular argument (Agent or Patient) as subject. The theory has the advantage of explaining errors without postulating the acquisition of erroneous lexical entries that have to be unlearned, and it can be extended to other kinds of errors in the choice and placement of arguments.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Children's use of information in word learning.

Whenever children hear a novel word, the context supplies information about its meaning. One way children may cope with so much information is to use whatever seems to make sense, given their prior knowledge and beliefs, while ignoring or quickly forgetting the rest. This work examined if and how children's beliefs about word meanings may affect their use of contrastive linguistic information in the input in word learning. In Study 1, some 3- and 4-year-olds were introduced to a novel material or shape name and heard it contrasted with familiar words. Others merely heard the novel word used for referring to an object. These children were then tested to determine what they had learned about their new word meaning. In Study 2, another group of 3- and 4-year-olds were asked to name the materials and shapes used for introducing these novel terms. Children made use of linguistic contrast only in some situations. They benefited more when the novel term did not overlap much in denotation with any terms commonly known by 3- and 4-year-olds. These results suggest that children can use information in the input very efficiently in learning a term for an as-yet-unnamed category, but not in learning a term similar in denotation to a word they already know. Thus, the results are consistent with the claim that children believe every word has a unique denotation.

Child Language↗
PubMed1990

Children's deictic and nondeictic interpretations of the spatial locatives in front of and behind.

A younger group (mean age 5; 10) and an older group (mean age 9; 11) of children were asked to place a toy man IN FRONT OF or BEHIND a car which either faced away from them or faced sideways. When the observer's viewpoint was not emphasized in the instructions, or was merely implied, both age groups responded in a nondeictic way. When the viewpoint of the observer was an essential component of the task and the spatial term was omitted, both age groups selected a deictic location. However, when the viewpoint was emphasized but when the spatial term was also included the responses were split between deictic and nondeictic locations.

Child↗
PubMed2002

Theory and methods in the study of the development of case and agreement: a response to Schütze.

Two recent papers Wexler, Schütze & Rice (1998) and Rispoli (1999a) reach different conclusions concerning the relationship between finiteness marking and pronoun case errors. Wexler et al. claim they are linked, whereas Rispoli finds little evidence for such a linkage. Wexler et al. discounted data from children who made pronoun case errors in 100% of their attempts at a subject pronoun, whereas Rispoli (1999a) included data from such children. This methodological difference may account for our differing conclusions. Schütze (2001) defends the omission of these data, claiming that children who make a pronoun case error 100% of the time do so because the correct pronoun case form is not in the child's productive inventory. Longitudinal data is presented showing the inadequacy of this assumption. Children may err without variation after a period of variation, indicating that these children have knowledge of the correct form. Apparent methodological differences between the two papers reveal deeper theoretical biases. The paradigm building approach taken by Rispoli views longitudinal variation of this sort as a reflection of lexical retrieval principles at work in a developing paradigm. In contrast, the Agr/Tns Omission Model of Wexler et al. finds such variation an uncomfortable inconvenience.

Child Language↗
PubMed2003

The acquisition of nuclei: a longitudinal analysis of phonological vowel length in three German-speaking children.

Studies of vowel length acquisition indicate an initial stage in which phonological vowel length is random followed by a stage in which either long vowels (without codas) or short vowels and codas are produced. To determine whether this sequence of acquisition applies to a group of German-speaking children (three children aged 1;3-2;6), monosyllabic and disyllabic words were transcribed and acoustically analysed. The results did not support a stage in which vowel length was totally random. At the first time period (onset of word production to 1;7), one child's monosyllabic productions were governed by a bipositional constraint such that either long vowels, or short vowels and codas were produced. At the second (1;10 to 2;0) and third time periods (2;3 to 2;6), all three children produced target long vowels significantly longer than target short vowels. Transcription results indicated that children experienced more difficulty producing target long than short vowels. In the discussion, the findings are interpreted in terms of the representation of vowel length in children's grammars.

Acoustics↗
PubMed2003

The sources of young children's name innovations for novel artifacts.

Two studies investigated whether four-year-old children (12 in Experiment 1 with a mean age of 4;8 and 36 in Experiment 2 with a mean age of 4;7) invent names for new artifacts based on the objects' functions as opposed to their perceptual properties. Children informed about the intended functions of novel objects provided more name innovations that were clearly function-based than perception-based. This tendency was observed when children were shown the objects' functions, even if they were also given verbal descriptions of the objects' perceptual properties and parts. Only when ignorant of the objects' intended functions did children tend to use perceptual features to create substantial numbers of names. Accordingly, results from this name-innovation methodology converge with findings from some recent studies of lexical categorization suggesting that functional information is critical to how preschoolers extend artifact names. Children appear to appreciate an intimate relation between the functions of artifacts and how they are named.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed2006

Facilitating the acquisition of UNDER by means of IN and ON--a training study in Polish.

Forty Polish children aged between 1;8 and 2;3 were trained over two training sessions in the comprehension of the preposition POD [UNDER]. In the experiment, two variables were manipulated: a within subjects variable of SITUATION and a between subjects variable of LINGUISTIC INPUT. The effect of situation could be found in all trained groups, showing that children's understanding in familiar and transfer situations differed significantly from the performance of the control group in the post-test. The results further suggest that depending on the type of a situation, the linguistic task requires different word learning abilities from a child.

Case-Control Studies↗
PubMed1997

Linguistic cues in the acquisition of number words.

Previous research has shown that children go through a stage in which they know that the number words each refer to a distinct numerosity, yet do not know WHICH numerosity each number word picks out (Wynn, 1992). How do children attain this level of knowledge? We explore the possibility that particular properties of how number words are used within sentences inform children of the semantic class to which they belong. An analysis of transcripts of the spontaneous speech of three one- and two-year-old children and their parents (from the CHILDES database; MacWhinney & Snow, 1990) suggests that the relevant cues are available as input in parents' speech to children, and that children generally honour these properties of number words in their own speech. Implications of this proposal for word learning more generally are discussed.

Child Language↗
PubMed1997

Sources of support for learning words in conversation: evidence from mealtimes.

This study examines mealtimes of preschoolers' families to determine whether rare words are used in informative ways so that a child could learn their meanings. Is there an association between informative use of rare words and the child's later vocabulary? Each use of rare words in 160 transcripts was coded for whether it was informative or uninformative. Each informative exchange was coded for type of strategy used to provide support: physical or social context, prior knowledge, and semantic support. There were 1,631 exchanges around rare words. About two-thirds of these exchanges were informative uses from which the child could learn the word's meaning. The most frequent strategy used was semantic support, accounting for two-thirds of strategies used. The frequency of use of rare words was positively correlated with age-five and age-seven PPVT scores.

Child Language↗
PubMed2002

The interaction of ambient frequency and feature complexity in the diphthong errors of children with phonological disorders.

This study examined the interaction of ambient frequency and feature complexity in the diphthong errors produced by Cantonese-speaking children with phonological disorders. A total of 611 diphthongs produced by 13 Cantonese-speaking children with speech disorders were subjected to perceptual analysis. The percentage accuracy of production and error patterns was examined. Perceptual analysis showed that /(see text)i/ and /ui/ were most frequently in error, whereas /ei/, /ou/, and /(see text)u/ were least frequently in error. Diphthong errors (usually diphthong reduction) arise as a function of both ambient frequency and feature complexity. The combination of ambient frequency and feature complexity yields a complexity metric reflecting accuracy of production. Treatment guidelines include consideration of three basic factors: ambient frequency, feature complexity, and error patterns.

Child↗
PubMed2005

The effect of semantic representation on toddlers' word retrieval.

PURPOSE: This study tested the hypothesis that depth of semantic representation influences toddlers' word retrieval. METHOD: Nineteen toddlers participated under 3 word learning conditions in this longitudinal study. Gestures cued attention to object shape (SHP) or function (FNC) in the experimental conditions. No semantic cue was provided under a control condition (CTL). Word learning conditions occurred on each of 3 days. On the 4th day, word retrieval was assessed across 3 levels of scaffolding (uncued picture naming, cued picture naming, picture recognition). Evidence of semantic representation was provided at fast and slow mapping intervals. RESULTS: Less scaffolding was necessary for word retrieval (uncued and cued naming) under experimental conditions than under the CTL condition. However, more SHP than FNC condition targets were retrieved for uncued picture naming. This latter difference may be related to the superior fast mapping of targets under the SHP condition. Toddlers stated object functions (slow mapping) comparably in the experimental conditions, but this was superior to CTL condition performance. CONCLUSIONS: Word retrieval is a continuous behavior that is positively influenced by semantic representation. Semantic knowledge of objects can be enriched by shape or function gestures, thereby improving toddlers' object word productions. Shape cues appear to be more effective for this purpose.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1977

Imitative and spontaneous articulatory assessment of three-year-old children.

One hundred children (25 three-year-old girls, 25 three-year-old boys, 25 three-and-a-half-year-old girls, and 25 three-and-a-half-year-old boys) were administered an articulation test using the spontaneous method and then the imitative method of stimulus presentation. No significant differences were found between the methods of stimulus presentation on the subjects' total articulation scores. Articulatory performance was significantly influenced by age, sex, and the interaction of age and sex.

Child Language↗
PubMed1987

Individual differences in phonological development: ages one and three years.

This paper reports the results of a study of the persistence of individual differences in the phonological development of 10 normally developing children observed at age 1 year and again at age 3 years. Data were based on 1/2-hr audio and video recordings of weekly spontaneous mother-child interaction sessions in the home between 9 and 17 months and at 36 months. In addition, phonological and cognitive probes were administered at age 3. At age 1 the children were compared at four times selected on the basis of the number of different word types used in a session. Preferences for particular phonological categories (fricatives, liquids, final consonants) were found not to correspond to relative mastery of those categories at age 3. Based on both babble and words, high use of vocalizations containing true consonants was found to be predictive of greater phonological advance at age 3. Phonological errors of two kinds were distinguished for age 3: those resulting from difficulty with specific segments and those more typical of younger children, involving the rearrangement, assimilation, or deletion of segments or syllables (prosodic errors). The children differed in intelligibility and in specific segment substitutions and cluster reductions. They also differed in the proportion of prosodic errors made and in consistency in segmental errors. Lastly, aspects of cognitive or learning style as expressed in phonological organization were found to be recognizable at both age 1 and age 3.

Child Language↗
PubMed1993

Acoustic evidence for the development of gestural coordination in the speech of 2-year-olds: a longitudinal study.

Studies of child phonology have often assumed that young children first master a repertoire of phonemes and then build their lexicon by forming combinations of these abstract, contrastive units. However, evidence from children's systematic errors suggests that children first build a repertoire of words as integral sequences of gestures and then gradually differentiate these sequences into their gestural and segmental components. Recently, experimental support for this position has been found in the acoustic records of the speech of 3-, 5-, and 7-year-old children, suggesting that even in older children some phonemes have not yet fully segregated as units of gestural organization and control. The present longitudinal study extends this work to younger children (22- and 32-month-olds). Results demonstrate clear differences in the duration and coordination of gestures between children and adults, and a clear shift toward the patterns of adult speakers during roughly the third year of life. Details of the child-adult differences and developmental changes vary from one aspect of an utterance to another.

Adult↗