How children use input to acquire a lexicon.

Full 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.

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Author information

Author/s: Hoff, Erika (E); Naigles, Letitia (L);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University, Ft Lauderdale 33314, USA. ehoff(-atsign-)fau.edu

Grants: HD20936 (Agency:United States NICHD)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Journal: Child development (Child Dev), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: -2002 Mar-Apr; vol 73 (issue 2) : pp 418-33

Dates: Created 2002/04/12; Completed 2002/10/24; Revised 2007/11/14;

PMID: 11949900, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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