How Children Use Input to Acquire a Lexicon

Abstract

The contributions of social processes and computational processes to early lexical development were evaluated. A re-analysis and review of previous research cast doubt on the sufficiency of social approaches to word learning. An empirical investigation of the relation of social-pragmatic and data-providing features of input to the productive vocabulary of sixty-three 2-year-old children revealed benefits of data provided in mother-child conversation, but no effects of social aspects of those conversations. The findings further revealed that the properties of data that benefit lexical development in 2-year-olds are quantity, lexical richness, and syntactic complexity. The nature of the computational mechanisms implied by these findings is discussed. An integrated account of the roles of social and computational processes to lexical development is proposed.

Maternal verbal responsiveness and directiveness: consistency, stability, and relations to child early linguistic development

“…The age 2;0 can be considered an important transitional point from prelinguistic to linguistic developmental stage that could be reflected in maternal interactive style. Furthermore, Hoff and Naigles (2002) have pointed out that once children have reached the first stages of language utilization, semantic contingency of adult utterances to the child's previous utterances or focus of attention may no longer explain the differences among children in their capacities. However, this is not to say that by the end of the second year of children's life CDS loses its facilitating effects altogether.…”

“…Maternal responsiveness refers to a mother's ability to perceive her child's signals accurately and respond to them promptly, contingently, and appropriately (Bornstein et al, 1999). It has often been shown to be associated with child language outcomes (Bornstein et al, 1999;Girolametto et al, 1999Girolametto et al, , 2002Hoff & Naigles, 2002;Kaiser & Hancock, 2003;Masur et al, 2005;Roberts & Kaiser, 2011). In turn, constantly redirecting the child's focus of attention and also attempts to command and control the child's behaviour have been considered characteristics of directive interactive style (Della Corte et al, 1983;Hoff & Naigles, 2002;Masur et al, 2005).…”

Verb Learning as a Probe Into Children's Grammars

“…In the cases where there are no inherent constraints guiding acquisition, we expect to see a larger role of the input. Indeed, this role has been documented for the acquisition of argument structure preferences that play a role in parsing (Snedeker and Trueswell, in press), for learning which verbs encode exceptions to general linking principles (Naigles, Fowler and Helm 1992), for identifying the set of syntactic frames that a verb occurs in (Hoff and Naigles 2002), among various other properties. Thus, the theory of verb-learning that develops is not one that is myopically focused exclusively on constraints from the learner or on the role of the input, but rather on the important interactions between the two.…”

Lapselle suunnatun puheen piirteet ja niiden yhteys sanaston kehitykseen 24 ja 30 kuukauden iässä

“…Itse asiassa jatkuvilla lapsen huomiota uudelleen suuntaavilla ilmauksilla on todettu olevan yhteyttä hitaampaan varhaisen sanaston kehitykseen (Akhtar, Dunham & Dunham, 1991;Della Corte, Benedict & Klein, 1983;Masur ym., 2005). Sen sijaan responsiivisuuden eli kyvyn vastata lapsen aloitteisiin nopeasti, johdonmukaisesti ja tarkoituksenmukaisesti lapsen aikomuksia ja tunteita oikein tulkiten on usean tutkimuksen mukaan todettu tukevan sanaston kehitystä (Bornstein ym., 1999;Girolametto ym., 1999Girolametto ym., , 2002Hoff & Naigles, 2002;Kaiser & Hancock, 2003;Masur ym., 2005;Paavola, 2006;Roberts & Kaiser, 2011). Herkkä reagoiminen lapsen ilmaisuihin rohkaisee lasta kommunikoimaan ja tarjoaa tilanteeseen liittyvän kielellisen mallin (Kaiser & Hancock, 2003).…”

“…Laajentaminen voi olla myös lapsen ilmaisun muokkaamista kieliopilliseen muotoon. Lapset oppivat uusia sanoja, kun heidän omia ilmaisujaan muotoillaan uudelleen eli niistä rakennetaan tarkempia malleja välittömässä kontekstissa (Hoff & Naigles, 2002;Kaiser & Hancock, 2003;Roberts & Kaiser, 2011;Wing ym., 2007). Kielentämisellä puolestaan tarkoitetaan sitä, kun aikuinen kuvaa tai kertoo lapsen käynnis-sä olevasta toiminnasta sanoin (Weitzner-Lin, 2004, s. 101).…”