Word Learning

Question 1

Protowords

Answer 1

Sounds used consistently by children with consistent meaning but which bear no resemblance to conventional words

Parent understands it, ritualized

Can be gestures at first, then sounds plus gestures, then just sounds

Not referential, but interactional (word must “stand for” the referent, not just “go with” them)

Question 2

Protolanguage

Halliday’s Four distinct acts of meaning

Answer 2

Instrumental – request an object
Regulatory – request an action
Interactional – social context
Personal – share interest

Question 3

The mapping (“gavagai”) problem

Answer 3

What exactly is the word referring to?

How large or small is the category?

Question 4

Underextension Error

Answer 4

A child infers that a word belong to too small a group of things

Context-specific words

Question 5

Overextension Error

Answer 5

A child infers that a word belong to too large a group of things

The property of this category is X, so everything that is X belongs in this category

Question 6

Patterners

Answer 6

Interested in building, knowing how things work, objects, discovering

More interested in things

Have more referential words at 50 words

Question 7

Dramatists

Answer 7

Interested in reproducing adult social reality

More interested in people

Have more expressive words at 50 words

Question 8

Why is there a word spurt at 50 words?

Nativist, Behaviorist, Constructivist Explanations

Answer 8

Nativist

Onset of the innate word-learning constraints

Behaviorist

All words are learned in parallel but some are easy to learn and others are hard. Just statistical.

Constructivist

Advances in the child’s understanding of the world and of the nature of words (and how they can be grouped into categories)

Question 9

(Nativist) Word learning constraints

3 Terms

Answer 9

According to the lexical constraint theory, children are able to figure out the correct meaning of words because they are born with innate knowledge that allows them to constrain the space of the possible meanings of words.

Whole Object Assumption

Mutual Exclusivity Assumption

Taxonomic Assumption

Question 10

Whole Object Assumption

Answer 10

Proposes that when children hear a word, they assume it refers to the whole word.

Question 11

Mutual Exclusivity Assumption

Answer 11

Proposes that children assume that different words refer to different things.

Objects and concepts have a single word to refer to them

Question 12

Taxonomic Assumption

Answer 12

Proposes that children assume that words refer to thing that are of the same kind, and so are used to categorize things

If a researcher used a name (“This is a sud. Fund the other sud”) vs. a vague “Find something like this,” the kid points to another categorically related picture (another dog, for instance)

Question 13

Behaviorist word learning constraints

Answer 13

The innate constraints could also be learned

Blocking

Question 14

Constructivist word learning constraints

Answer 14

Principle of conventionality

Principle of Contrast

Question 15

Principle of conventionality

Answer 15

Words cannot be made up; they must be shared by the community

(language is a set of mostly arbitrary conventions)

Question 16

Principle of Contrast

Answer 16

Different words have different meanings

Question 17

Study: Do children understand the conventionality of words?

Answer 17

Graham, Stock, and Henderson

19 month olds
Tells kids that they are looking through a box for a “mido”
Picks something up, says “oh!”
Kids subsequently identify that object as a mido, regardless of whether the same person asks them or not

Suggests that kids know that words generalize across people

Question 18

Composition of kid’s early vocabulary

(3 types and definitions)

Answer 18

Context-bound/context-specific
If the context is changed, the kid will not use the word anymore

Nominal
Referential, noun-like words
Used flexibly, across situations

Non-nominal
Not a noun
Used flexibly, across situations

Question 19

How does a word become context-bound?

Answer 19

If it is only used in one way by the caregiver

A study showed that mothers did use the words out of the context that the kids use them, but most kids use the meaning most frequently used by the mother

Question 20

Classical Conditioning

Answer 20

Unconditioned Stimulus
Unconditioned Response
Conditioned Stimulus
Conditioned Response

Dog – bell to salivation (presence of food)

Bunny - tone to blink (eye air puff)

Question 21

Word learning as classical conditioning

Answer 21

Hear the word cat to a mental representation of a cat (whether or not the cat is present)

Question 22

Blocking in classical conditioning

Answer 22

The learned response inhibits other responses

If a rabbit is trained first with a tone, can’t learn a new stimulus, such as a light flash

Question 23

Social-pragmatic accounts of word learning

Answer 23

Word learning is born out of the child’s understanding of the world and other minds

Joint Attention

Common Ground

Question 24

Joint Attention

Answer 24

Said to exist when two individuals are both attending to an object and when they are aware that the other is attending to it

Question 25

Conversation as joint action

Answer 25

Language is used to get things done

Involves many individual actions

Ultimately a joint, collaborative action - cooperative

Question 26

Study: Do children pay attention to joint attention and common ground?

Answer 26

Tomasello

Experiment 1:
12 month old played with two toys with an adult that left the room
Child played with third toy with second adult
When first adult returned, adult said, “wow, give me that!”
Child handed object three

Child know from common ground that adult would not be excited about toy one and two

Experiment 2:
Same study, but just watched adult play with the two toys
When they came back in, child would hand them anything

Joint attention is necessary for common ground

Question 27

Behaviorist view of word learning

Answer 27

Kids have a novelty bias

They assume the other person is referring to something novel or something that stands out (to the kid)

Don’t need any knowledge of other minds