First words

Question 1

Whats a good predictor of vocabulary?

Answer 1

reading habit at 4 and 15 years

Question 2

How many words do 10 month olds understand?

Answer 2

40

Question 3

When do first words appear?

Answer 3

around 12 months

after vocabulary size 50+

Question 4

Whats the receptive vocabulary of a 12 month old

Answer 4

75 words

Question 5

How many words used by 18 months?

Answer 5

50

Question 6

Vocab size age 3

Answer 6

550

Question 7

How many words gained a day between 3-16

Answer 7

4 words a day

Question 8

How can vocabulary learning be predicted?

Answer 8

joint attention, gesture

Question 9

Which is bigger? Expressive or receptive vocabulary?

Answer 9

Receptive

Question 10

How do children learn words?

Answer 10

They have to:
segment the speech/sign stream into ‘units’ identified later as words.
analyse the world into objects and events.
map speech/sign units onto these objects and events (“reference”).

Question 11

To be considered a true first word, a “word” must…

Answer 11

Have a phonological relationship to the adult word.
Be used consistently by the child.
Occur in the presence of a referent, thus implying an intended meaning.

Question 12

Phonological Characteristics of first words

Answer 12

Phonologically simple – monosyllabic / 2 syllables

Open syllables e.g. CV or CVCV

Show evidence of consonant harmony, reduplication, final consonant and weak syllable deletion

Labial sounds predominate e.g. m, b, w, p

Most common word-initial sound is /b/

Question 13

Semantic Characteristics of first words

Answer 13

Concerned with child’s immediate environment e.g. animals, food, toys

Mid-level of specificity e.g. dog, rather than spaniel or animal

Question 14

Syntactic Characteristics of first words

Answer 14

Morphologically simple

Nouns predominate….but not all are nouns

Question 15

What are the word classes like of the first 100 words?

Answer 15

Nouns predominate in the first 100 words in children learning English….

Verbs begin to rise proportionally after first 100 words.
Other word classes e.g. prepositions may not rise proportionally until 400 words are acquired.

Question 16

Why are nouns most common first words?

Answer 16

Conceptually/perceptually distinct.

Linguistically predictable.

Limited morphological modifications.

Frequent in the input to children – labelling occurs often in Western culture.

English word order places nouns at the end of the utterance where they are most salient and they are usually stressed.

Babies/toddlers have lots of experience with objects represented by nouns.

Question 17

What are quasi words?

Answer 17

Phonological forms used consistently for a particular meaning, but with no phonological relationship to the adult word.

May also be referred to as “phonetically consistent forms”.

Quasi-words, babble and gestures continue to be used alongside early words.

Child may also use whole learned adult phrases as a single word e.g. “wassat?” (unanalysed wholes).

Question 18

What are the intentions of first words?

Answer 18

A single word may:

• Label an object or action.
• Request something.
• Request for something to continue/ happen again.
• Gain someone’s attention.
• Serve other social functions e.g. greetings.
• Answer a question.
• Ask questions (+ intonation).
• Indicate possession / location / attribute.

Question 19

List some Difficulties in Word Learning

Answer 19

Segmenting the speech stream is difficult

Hearing the same word despite variations in speaker voice.

Mapping words to meanings:
Over/under generalisation.
Part or whole?
Mapping of action words / abstract words.

Question 20

What’s undergeneralisaation?

Answer 20

Under-generalisation - restricting use of a word to just one particular referent e.g. only using the word “cat” to refer to own cat.

Question 21

Whats undergeneralisation?

Answer 21

Over-generalisation – e.g. using the word “cat” to refer to all furry four-legged animals including dogs.
Definitions are gradually modified by real-world experience and exposure to adult language.

Question 22

What’s Quine’s problem?

Answer 22

A linguist visits a foreign land and hears someone say the word ‘gavagi’ as a rabbit runs. There are a number of possible word-to-world mappings in this situation.

Issue with labelling; what word does the child understand by the meaning?