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1Psych 56L/ Ling 51:Acquisition of LanguageLecture 9Lexical Development IAnnouncementsMidterm returned, grades also available on EEELexical Knowledge in AdultsWe know a lot of wordsAverage English-speaking college student knows ~150,000Average first grader knows ~14,000 (and has only been alive~2000 days) - that’s 7 new words a day, assuming that thechild learns right from the first day they’re born!2What we knowMental dictionary of words = lexiconEach entry for a word contains a lot of information, includingwhat the word sounds like, how to use the word incombination with other words, what the word means, whatother words that word is related to…goblin/gablIn/the goblin is…, some goblins are…Goblin KingSo what exactly is a word, anyway?A word is an arbitrary symbol that stands for somethingin the real world (even if it’s only a concept insomeone else’s mind): goblin, silliness, labyrinthImportant: words refer to things (referential). Notenough to simply have associations of sound withsomething (ex: saying “Eeek!” every time you see aspider)Some greetings and social routines (“Hi!” “See ya!”)might be considered non-referential language.What we’re interested inHow do children’s lexicons develop? That is, how do they developnot just the sound patterns, but also how to use wordssyntactically and what they refer to in the worldgoblin/gablIn/the goblin is…, some goblins are…Goblin KingThe Course of Early Lexical Development3First Words10-15 months: first words that actually sound like the words thechild is trying to approximate (and they have a fixed meaning,as opposed to being sound sequences the child likes to say)These tend to be context-bound: ex: “car” said when looking at cars out of apartment window, butnot when looking at cars up close or when seeing a picture of acarChildren’s usage: have simply identified one particular event in thecontext of which it’s appropriate to use that word, but haven’trealized its more abstract coverageFirst WordsEven if children realize a word has more extended use, they stillmay not realize it has the meaning that adults have for itEx: “more” = request for more, not general comparisonOften, first words are parts of routines or language games.Children must then realize that these words can be extended.kittyFirst WordsEven if children realize a word has more extended use, they stillmay not realize it has the meaning that adults have for itEx: “more” = request for more, not general comparisonOften, first words are parts of routines or language games.Children must then realize that these words can be extended.kittyFirst WordsThe extension process doesn’t happen at the same time for allwords. Some referential words may coexist with words that arecontextual. Which words are which will vary from child to child.Jacqui: “no” = context-bound, used when refusing somethingoffered by her mother (wouldn’t say it when offered bysomeone else or while indicating her dislike of something,etc.)no4First WordsThe extension process doesn’t happen at the same time for allwords. Some referential words may coexist with words that arecontextual. Which words are which will vary from child to child.Jenny: “no” = referential, used when pushing a drink away,while crawling to a step she was not allowed to climb, whilerefusing a request by her mothernoFirst WordsIn general, it’s not because children don’t hear these words indifferent contexts that they have a narrower meaning thanadults do. Their parents used the words in many differentcontexts.So what’s the problem?It’s not an easy task to extract the common meaning fromdifferent contexts.kitty = ?First WordsIn general, it’s not because children don’t hear these words indifferent contexts that they have a narrower meaning thanadults do. Their parents used the words in many differentcontexts.So what’s the problem?It’s not an easy task to extract the common meaning fromdifferent contexts.cute = ?From 0 to 50 words15-24 months: reach 50 words, adding them slowly to thelexicon one at a time% of lexicon# of wordsGeneralnominals makeup the most(ex: kitty, milk,ball, he, this)5From 0 to 50 words15-24 months: reach 50 words, adding them slowly to thelexicon one at a time% of lexicon# of wordsSpecificnominals (ex:Mommy,Daddy, Felix)From 0 to 50 words15-24 months: reach 50 words, adding them slowly to thelexicon one at a time% of lexicon# of wordsAction words(ex: go, up,look)From 0 to 50 words15-24 months: reach 50 words, adding them slowly to thelexicon one at a time% of lexicon# of wordsPersonal,social, functionwords (ex: no,want, please,what, is, for)From 0 to 50 words15-24 months: reach 50 words, adding them slowly to thelexicon one at a time% of lexicon# of wordsModifiers (ex:big, all gone,mine, outside)6From 0 to 50 wordsVocabularies of children with 50 or less words are heavilyconcentrated on experiences child has: names for people,food, body parts, clothing, animals, household items. (Ingeneral, a lot of nouns)Adult and older children have more variety, including moreabstract nouns, as well as other grammatical categories likeprepositions (with, from), determiners (the, a), andadjectives (silly).The Preponderance of NounsOne idea: the meaning of nouns is easier to identify than themeaning of other words, like verbskitty = ?give = ?The Preponderance of NounsOne idea: the meaning of nouns is easier to identify than themeaning of other words, like verbsNatural partitions hypothesis: physical world makes obvious thethings that take nouns as labels (whereas verb meaning hasto be figured out more from the way verbs are used inlanguage)Relational hypothesis: verb meaning does not naturally emergefrom the structure of the world, so the way verb meaning isencoded in a language will vary from language to languagerelatedLearning Verb MeaningExample of linguistic variation in verb meaning:English:The goblin fell into the river and then floated down it.Spanish:The goblin entered the river falling and then went down it floating.7Learning Verb MeaningExample of linguistic variation in verb meaning:English:The goblin fell into the river and then floated down it.Spanish:The goblin entered the river falling and then went down it floating.Go + Fall In Go + Float DownGo FloatDownGo + In FallLearning Verb MeaningExample of linguistic variation in verb meaning:English:The goblin fell into the river and then floated down it.Spanish:The goblin entered the river


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