The development of noun definitions: a metalinguistic analysis

Abstract

Defining is a metalinguistic skill. This study charts the development of the ability to define. A total of 120 participants (40 at each of the ages of 10, 14 and 18 years) defined eight concrete and eight abstract nouns. Each definition was coded to identify the types of responses present in it. Results indicate that there are significant differences in the way concrete and abstract nouns are defined. All three age-groups defined concrete nouns mainly by class and characteristic responses. But it was not until age 18 that abstract nouns were defined by class and characteristic responses. The development of abstract noun definitions follows the development of concrete noun definitions. The ability to define is dependent upon knowledge of the meaning of the word but it is also dependent upon implicit or explicit knowledge of the definitional form. The ability to define abstract nouns is a late developing metalinguistic skill.

Early foreign language education and metalinguistic development

“…In view of previous research, the lack of significant difference among the three groups on the quality of their definitions for abstract nouns supports the conclusions of McGhee-Bidlack's (1991) study that the ability to define abstract nouns is a late developing metalinguistic skill, usually not revealed before the age of 18. Since the subjects in the present study were between 10 and 11 years of age, it was expected in light of McGhee-Bidlack's findings that their definitions for abstract nouns would be of lower level than those for concrete nouns.…”

“…In addition to the independent variable age that was employed in earlier research designs, the more recent studies tried to operationalize linguistic (Kikas, 1993;McGhee-Bidlack, 1991;Skwarchuk & Anglin, 1997), sociolinguistic (Wilson, 1975), and metalinguistic (Benelli, 1988;Biyalistok & Majumder, 1998;Carlisle et al, 1999;Snow, Cancino, DeTemple, & Schley, 1991) concepts, which resulted in a number of new independent variables in word-definition research.…”

“…The ability to formulate these relationships by means of language requires cognitive maturity and semantic knowledge as well as familiarity with a conventional syntactic form for definitions. It is for this reason that word-definition tasks have long been used by test makers and researchers to measure and investigate different aspects of an individual's cognitive, linguistic and metalinguistic development (Al-Issa, 1969;Benelli, Arcuri, & Marchesini, 1988;Bialystok & Majumder, 1998;Kikas, 1993;Litowitz, 1977;Markowitz & Franz, 1983McGhee-Bidlack, 1991;Nippold, 1995;Skwarchuk & Anglin, 1997;Snow, 1990;Watson, 1985Watson, , 1995Wilson, 1975). Consequently, a number of coding systems have been employed to help researchers analyze the word-definition data.…”

Hebrew Derived Nouns in Context: A Developmental Perspective

“…Another innovative feature of this test concerns metalinguistic knowledge of abstract nouns [9,52], on the assumption that composing a sentence containing an abstract noun may prove a more effective means of assessing speakers' knowledge of such lexical items [9]. Requiring a formal definition might be a better way to pinpoint lexical knowledge, but definition of abstract nouns is a difficult task even for adults, and so inappropriate in a developmental study [9,53,54]. Besides, sentence construction can uniquely pinpoint the interface between lexicosemantics and syntax, by having subjects embed morphologically derived forms in syntactically wellformed and semantically appropriate contexts.…”

Review article

“…The ability to articulate formal definitions is often associated with literacy or schooling (Goody and Watt 1968;Baron 1981). Studies of how young children acquire word meanings suggest a natural progression from functional meanings (Ά chair is to sit on'); through descriptive ('An apple is round and juicy'), temporal-spatial (Ά bed is used at naptime'), origin ('Food comes from animals'), or extensive responses ('Woofy is a dog'); to indefinite place holders (Ά chair is something to sit on'); and eventually to definitions in terms of subordinate and superordinate classes ('An apple is a kind of fruit') (McGhee- Bidlack 1991). (See Litowitz 1977;Snow 1990;and McGhee-Bidlack 1991 for reviews of the literature on how children learn word meanings.…”