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Input and word learning: caregivers' sensitivity to lexical category distinctions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2003

D. GEOFFREY HALL
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia
TRACEY C. BURNS
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia
JODI L. PAWLUSKI
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia

Abstract

Twenty-four caregivers and their two- to four-year-old children took part in a storybook reading task in which caregivers taught children novel labels (‘DAXY’) for familiar objects. One group (N=12) received labels modelled syntactically as proper names (‘This is NAMED DAXY’), and another group (N=12) received the same labels for the same objects modelled syntactically as adjectives (‘This is VERY DAXY’). Caregivers took strikingly different approaches to teaching words from the two lexical categories. In teaching proper names, but not adjectives, caregivers flagged cases in which one word was paired with two objects; two words were paired with one object; and one word was paired with an inanimate object. In teaching adjectives, but not proper names, caregivers discussed meaning and offered translations. Caregivers' distinctive strategies for teaching proper names and adjectives are congruent with recent findings about children's word meaning assumptions, and with analyses of the semantics of these lexical categories. The findings indicate that parental speech could provide a rich source of information to children in learning how different lexical categories are expressed in their native language.

Type
Note
Copyright
© 2003 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This work was supported by an operating grant from the NSERC of Canada to the first author. We are indebted to the parents and children who graciously volunteered to participate in this research. We thank Elizabeth Job, Kelley Persoage, Alison Ritchie, and Irene Kim for their contributions to this work. Two anonymous reviewers gave us helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.