Do children acquire dense neighborhoods? An investigation of similarity neighborhoods in lexical acquisition

Abstract

This study tests the claim that children acquire collections of phonologically similar word forms, namely, dense neighborhoods. Age of acquisition (AoA) norms were obtained from two databases: parent report of infant and toddler production and adult self-ratings of AoA. Neighborhood density, word frequency, word length, Density × Frequency and Density × Length were analyzed as potential predictors of AoA using linear regression. Early acquired words were higher in density, higher in word frequency, and shorter in length than late acquired words. Significant interactions provided evidence that the lexical factors predicting AoA varied, depending on the type of word being learned. The implication of these findings for lexical acquisition and language learning are discussed.

Phonological development in relation to native language and literacy: Variations on a theme in six alphabetic orthographies

“…One possibility is that restructuring is determined by the density of the phonological neighbourhoods present in vocabulary, a factor that has been discussed in relation to the timing of restructuring during childhood (Storkel, 2004), but which may also lead to cross-linguistic variation in the speed of restructuring (Vicente, Castro, & Walley, 2003). A feature of languages containing simple syllable structures is the large number of polysyllabic words, whereas languages with more complex syllables do not need to rely on syllable combination for lexical variety, as variety can also exist via changes in syllable structure (Fenk-Oczlon & Fenk, 1999).…”

Individual differences in the influence of phonological characteristics on expressive vocabulary development by young children

“…German and Newman (2004) found that 7-to 12-year-old children named words with many neighbors more accurately than words with few neighbors. Turning to acquisition, Storkel (2004a) examined the relationship between density and age-ofacquisition of words, using a naturalistic database of the expressive vocabularies of infants and toddlers (ages from 8 to 30 months). The results showed that young children learned words with many neighbors at earlier ages than words with few neighbors.…”

“…Specifically, word frequency facilitates children's production (Newman and German, 2002) and acquisition of spoken words (Storkel, 2004a), with a high frequency advantage. Moreover, Storkel (2004a) found an interaction between word frequency and neighborhood density in expressive vocabulary development. Specifically, the density effect was observed in low frequency words but not in high frequency words, suggesting that high frequency might overshadow the density effect in expressive vocabulary development.…”

“…Specifically, the density effect was observed in low frequency words but not in high frequency words, suggesting that high frequency might overshadow the density effect in expressive vocabulary development. For word length, shorter words are acquired at earlier ages than longer words (Coady & Aslin, 2003;Storkel, 2004a). As with word frequency, word length appears to interact with density in expressive vocabulary development (Storkel, 2004a).…”

“…For word length, shorter words are acquired at earlier ages than longer words (Coady & Aslin, 2003;Storkel, 2004a). As with word frequency, word length appears to interact with density in expressive vocabulary development (Storkel, 2004a). In particular, the density effect was observed for short words but not long words, possibly due to the lack of variation in density for long words in English.…”