Development of Meaning Flashcards
What is Productive Vocabulary?
refers to the words a person is able to use, either in speech or writing.
What is Receptive Vocabulary?
refers to the words a person recognises/understands and is likely to be larger than their productive vocabulary.
Children’s understanding of word meanings is ahead of their ability to produce the corresponding words.
Look at the productive rate of acquisition flow chart!
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What is overextension?
When children are trying to make sense of the world they often look for patterns.
Overextension is the widening the meaning of a word so it applies not just to the actual object, but other objects with similar properties.
Example: calling all animals with 4 legs a dog.
In a 50 work vocabulary how many words are likely to be overextended?
one third are likely to be overextended.
At the 2 1/2 what happens to overextend words?
marked decrease in number of overextension this is due to the child’s vocabulary is increasing rapidly, thus filling the gaps previously filled by overextended words.
What does Rescorla say 1980?
She divides overextension into 3 categories:
Categorical overextension- Most common type of overextension, and relates to confusing a hypernym (broad category) with a hyponym (specific example).
Analogical overextension- Associating objects that are unrelated but have one or more features in common.
Predicate overextension- Conveying meaning that relates to absence.
Categorical overextension
Most common type of overextension, and relates to confusing a hypernym (broad category) with a hyponym (specific example).
For example, all fruit is an apple.
Analogical overextension
Associating objects that are unrelated but have one or more features in common.
e.g. Any round object is a ball.
Predicate overextension
Conveying meaning that relates to absence.
For example, all juice related objects are juice. Empty bottle, orange juice, blueberry juice, a carton.
What is underextension?
When the meaning ascribed to a word is narrower than the meaning it has in adult language; using a hyponym instead of a hypernym.
Example: Billy looks at his pet dog Rex and says “That’s a dog”. His mum asks him if the neighbour’s dog Fido is a dog. “No”, says Billy.
What is network building?
As a child gets older, and it’s cognitive (i.e. brain) abilities develop, they will make a series of realisations that objects do not exist in isolation. They see that some have similarities, some differences, and so network building is born.
What did Aitchison (1987) define the three stage process of network building as?
Labelling (attaching words to objects)
Packaging (in trying to ascertain the boundaries of the label, the child is likely to over or underextend)
Network building (identifying connections between objects)
