First words Flashcards
Whats a good predictor of vocabulary?
reading habit at 4 and 15 years
How many words do 10 month olds understand?
40
When do first words appear?
around 12 months
after vocabulary size 50+
Whats the receptive vocabulary of a 12 month old
75 words
How many words used by 18 months?
50
Vocab size age 3
550
How many words gained a day between 3-16
4 words a day
How can vocabulary learning be predicted?
joint attention, gesture
Which is bigger? Expressive or receptive vocabulary?
Receptive
How do children learn words?
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”).
To be considered a true first word, a “word” must…
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.
Phonological Characteristics of first words
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/
Semantic Characteristics of first words
Concerned with child’s immediate environment e.g. animals, food, toys
Mid-level of specificity e.g. dog, rather than spaniel or animal
Syntactic Characteristics of first words
Morphologically simple
Nouns predominate….but not all are nouns
What are the word classes like of the first 100 words?
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.
Why are nouns most common first words?
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.
What are quasi words?
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).
What are the intentions of first words?
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.
List some Difficulties in Word Learning
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.
What’s undergeneralisaation?
Under-generalisation - restricting use of a word to just one particular referent e.g. only using the word “cat” to refer to own cat.
Whats undergeneralisation?
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.
What’s Quine’s problem?
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?
