Lexical Development CH 5

Question 1

Mental Lexicon

Answer 1

Dictionary in the head that holds phonology, meaning, and grammatical functions of words

Question 2

First words (~12 months)

Answer 2

Are based on real words.

Many are context-bound (therefore not truly referential)

Question 3

50 word vocab (~18 months)

Answer 3

Most are nouns (for English-speaking kids, at least)

Question 4

So many verbs in 50-word vocab?–Natural Partitions Hypothesis

Answer 4

Referents of nouns are labels for objects children already know about

Question 5

So many verbs in 50-word vocab?–Relational Relativity Hypothesis

Answer 5

Verb meanings do not naturally emerge from the structure of the world.
>noun meanings more similar across languages than verb meanings

Question 6

Overextension

Answer 6

Overly broad use of a word

> All animals are doggies

Question 7

Underextension

Answer 7

Overly narrow use of a word

> Only large dogs are “doggies”, not small dogs

Question 8

Lexical access problem

Answer 8

Naming an animal with an unknown name–happens less as children acquire more differentiated vocabulary

Question 9

Word Spurt

Answer 9

increase in rate of learning words after the 50-word milestone.

> small percentage are gradual word learners

Question 10

Phonological memory

Answer 10

Ability to remember a sequence of unfamiliar sounds

Question 11

Fast mapping

Answer 11

Hypotheses about word meanings formed within few exposures.

> unfamiliar name goes with the object they do not have a name for

Question 12

Mutual exclusivity assumption

Answer 12

Different words refer to different kinds of things

Question 13

Syntactic bootstrapping hypothesis

Answer 13

Children find clues to word meaning in syntax

> “a/the nouns vs verbing / verbed”