The other way to learn the meaning of a word

2001 ◽  
Vol 24 (6) ◽  
pp. 1117-1118
Author(s):  
Sam Scott
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
The Other ◽  
Linguistic Context ◽  
New Words

Bloom's book can be viewed as a long argument for an anti-Whorfian conclusion. According to Bloom, word learning is usually a process of mapping new words to pre-existing concepts. But an exception to this generalization – the learning of words from linguistic context – poses a problem for Bloom's anti-Whorfian argument.

scholarly journals Better to Be Alone than in Bad Company: Cognate Synonyms Impair Word Learning

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 123
Author(s):  
Eneko Antón ◽  
Jon Andoni Duñabeitia
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Word Association ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
The Other ◽  
Matching Task ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
New Words ◽  
L2 Word Learning ◽  
Concrete Concepts ◽  
Better Than

The effects of cognate synonymy in L2 word learning are explored. Participants learned the names of well-known concrete concepts in a new fictional language following a picture-word association paradigm. Half of the concepts (set A) had two possible translations in the new language (i.e., both words were synonyms): one was a cognate in participants’ L1 and the other one was not. The other half of the concepts (set B) had only one possible translation in the new language, a non-cognate word. After learning the new words, participants’ memory was tested in a picture-word matching task and a translation recognition task. In line with previous findings, our results clearly indicate that cognates are much easier to learn, as we found that the cognate translation was remembered much better than both its non-cognate synonym and the non-cognate from set B. Our results also seem to suggest that non-cognates without cognate synonyms (set B) are better learned than non-cognates with cognate synonyms (set A). This suggests that, at early stages of L2 acquisition, learning a cognate would produce a poorer acquisition of its non-cognate synonym, as compared to a solely learned non-cognate. These results are discussed in the light of different theories and models of bilingual mental lexicon.

scholarly journals Better to Be Alone Than in Bad Company: Cognate Synonyms Impair Word Learning

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eneko Antón ◽  
Jon Andoni Duñabeitia
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Word Association ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
The Other ◽  
Matching Task ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
New Words ◽  
L2 Word Learning ◽  
Concrete Concepts ◽  
Better Than

The effects of cognate synonymy in L2 word learning are explored. Participants learned the names of well-known concrete concepts in a new fictional language following a picture-word association paradigm. Half of the concepts (set A) had two possible translations in the new language (i.e., both words were synonyms): one was a cognate in participants’ L1 and the other one was not. The other half of the concepts (set B) had only one possible translation in the new language, a non-cognate word. After learning the new words, participants’ memory was tested in a picture-word matching task and a translation recognition task. In line with previous findings, our results clearly indicate that cognates are much easier to learn, as we found that the cognate translation was remembered much better than both its non-cognate synonym and the non-cognate from set B. Our results also seem to suggest that non-cognates without cognate synonyms (set B) are better learned than non-cognates with cognate synonyms (set A). This suggests that, at early stages of L2 acquisition, learning a cognate would produce a poorer acquisition of its non-cognate synonym, as compared to a solely learned non-cognate. These results are discussed under the light of different theories and models of bilingual mental lexicon.

Pragmatic directions and children's word learning

1998 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
EVE V. CLARK ◽  
JAMES B. GROSSMAN
Keyword(s):  
Coping Strategies ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
The Other ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
New Words ◽  
Children’S Learning ◽  
Children's Learning

The present study tested the hypothesis that children as young as two use what adults tell them about meaning relations when they make inferences about new words. 18 two-year-olds (mean age 2;2) and 18 three-year-olds (mean age 3;2) learned two new terms (a) with instructions either (i) to treat one term as a superordinate to the other, or (ii) to replace one term with another; and (b) with no instruction given about how two new words might be related. Children were attentive to both kinds of instructions or pragmatic directions, and made use of them in their word-learning. When they received no instruction relating the two new words, they resorted to a range of coping strategies to assign and relate meanings to each other. These findings support the view that children's learning of new word meanings is guided by the pragmatic directions adults offer.

Prologue to the Forum: Vocabulary Across the School Grades

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 461-465 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne M. Adlof
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Vocabulary Instruction ◽  
Elementary Grades ◽  
Reading Disorders ◽  
Vocabulary Intervention ◽  
New Words ◽  
School Grades ◽  
Grade Levels ◽  
Ability Levels ◽  
Instructional Settings

Purpose This prologue introduces the LSHSS Forum: Vocabulary Across the School Grades. The goals of the forum are to provide an overview of the importance of vocabulary to literacy and academic achievement, to review evidence regarding best practices for vocabulary instruction, and to highlight recent research related to word learning with students across different grade levels. Method The prologue provides a foundational overview of vocabulary's role in literacy and introduces the topics of the other ten articles in the forum. These include clinical focus articles, research reviews, and word-learning and vocabulary intervention studies involving students in elementary grades through college. Conclusion Children with language and reading disorders experience specific challenges learning new words, but all students can benefit from high-quality vocabulary instruction. The articles in this issue highlight the characteristics of evidence-based vocabulary interventions for children of different ages, ability levels, and language backgrounds and provide numerous examples of intervention activities that can be modified for use in individual, small-group, or large-group instructional settings.

scholarly journals Functional Neuroanatomy of Contextual Acquisition of Concrete and Abstract Words

2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (11) ◽  
pp. 2154-2171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Mestres-Missé ◽  
Thomas F. Münte ◽  
Antoni Rodriguez-Fornells
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Functional Neuroanatomy ◽  
Linguistic Context ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
New Words ◽  
Simulation Paradigm ◽  
Abstract Words ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Concrete Words

The meaning of a novel word can be acquired by extracting it from linguistic context. Here we simulated word learning of new words associated to concrete and abstract concepts in a variant of the human simulation paradigm that provided linguistic context information in order to characterize the brain systems involved. Native speakers of Spanish read pairs of sentences in order to derive the meaning of a new word that appeared in the terminal position of the sentences. fMRI revealed that learning the meaning associated to concrete and abstract new words was qualitatively different and recruited similar brain regions as the processing of real concrete and abstract words. In particular, learning of new concrete words selectively boosted the activation of the ventral anterior fusiform gyrus, a region driven by imageability, which has previously been implicated in the processing of concrete words.

Word learning in a special population: do individuals with Williams syndrome obey lexical constraints?

1997 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 737-765 ◽  
Author(s):  
TASSOS STEVENS ◽  
ANNETTE KARMILOFF-SMITH
Keyword(s):  
Williams Syndrome ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
Neurodevelopmental Disorder ◽  
Fast Mapping ◽  
Mutual Exclusivity ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Normal Children ◽  
New Words ◽  
Adolescents And Adults ◽  
Lexical Constraints

Williams syndrome (WS), a rare neurodevelopmental disorder, is of special interest to developmental psycholinguists because of its uneven linguistico-cognitive profile of abilities and deficits. One proficiency manifest in WS adolescents and adults is an unusually large vocabulary despite serious deficits in other domains. In this paper, rather than focus on vocabulary size, we explore the processes underlying vocabulary acquisition, i.e. how new words are learned. A WS group was compared to groups of normal MA-matched controls in the range 3–9 years in four different experiments testing for constraints on word learning. We show that in construing the meaning of new words, normal children at all ages display fast mapping and abide by the constraints tested: mutual exclusivity, whole object and taxonomic. By contrast, while the WS group showed fast mapping and the mutual exclusivity constraint, they did not abide by the whole object or taxonomic constraints. This suggests that measuring only the size of WS vocabulary can distort conclusions about the normalcy of WS language. Our study shows that despite equivalent behaviour (i.e. vocabulary test age), the processes underlying how vocabulary is acquired in WS follow a somewhat different path from that of normal children and that the atypically developing brain is not necessarily a window on normal development.

Studies in Speech Disorder in Schizophrenia

1969 ◽  
Vol 115 (524) ◽  
pp. 833-841
Author(s):  
A. D. Forrest ◽  
A. J. Hay ◽  
A. W. Kushner
Keyword(s):  
Speech Disorder ◽  
The Other ◽  
Mutual Understanding ◽  
Private Language ◽  
Chronic Patients ◽  
New Words ◽  
Emotional Factors ◽  
Group Members

Most clinical psychiatrists would agree that many but not all schizophrenic subjects show abnormalities in the field of language. Many use neologisms, i.e. new words for old referents, and some chronic patients talk in a more or less private language which at times degenerates into a word salad. The following features have been noted in the schizophrenic's verbal productions—alliteration, condensation, over-inclusiveness and the personal distortion of the symbol-referent tie. Stuart Chase said: “The point of every discussion is to find the referent. When it is found emotional factors dissolve in mutual understanding.” Psychiatrists often assume that they have identified the referent which ties in with the symbol the patient is using, but sometimes the patient uses new symbols, as “Bill” did the other week when he astonished the other group members by announcing that he was “troubled by warpations and distressed by ignorances”.

Lexical Segmentation in Artificial Word Learning: The Effects of Converging Sublexical Cues

2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Odile Bagou ◽  
Ulrich Hans Frauenfelder
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Synergistic Effects ◽  
New Words ◽  
Artificial Languages ◽  
Prosodic Cues ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Lexical Segmentation

This study examines how French listeners segment and learn new words of artificial languages varying in the presence of different combinations of sublexical segmentation cues. The first experiment investigated the contribution of three different types of sublexical cues (acoustic-phonetic, phonological and prosodic cues) to word learning. The second experiment explored how participants specifically exploited sublexical prosodic cues. Whereas complementary cues signaling word-initial and word-final boundaries had synergistic effects on word learning in the first experiment, the two manipulated prosodic cues redundantly signaling word-final boundaries in the second experiment were rank-ordered with final pitch variations being more weighted than final lengthening. These results are discussed in light of the notions of cue type, cue position and cue efficiency.

Speech perception and vocabulary growth

2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 323-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maarit Silvén ◽  
Marinus Voeten ◽  
Anna Kouvo ◽  
Maija Lundén
Keyword(s):  
Growth Rate ◽  
Speech Perception ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
Growth Modeling ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Speech Sounds ◽  
New Words ◽  
Vocabulary Growth

Growth modeling was applied to monolingual ( N = 26) and bilingual ( N = 28) word learning from 14 to 36 months. Level and growth rate of vocabulary were lower for Finnish-Russian bilinguals than for Finnish monolinguals. Processing of Finnish speech sounds at 7 but not at 11 months predicted level, but not growth rate of vocabulary in both Finnish and Russian; this relationship was the same for monolinguals and bilinguals. The bilinguals’ two vocabularies developed differently, showing no acceleration in Russian, the minority language. Even though the bilinguals progressed more slowly in each home language, they were learning at least as many new words as the monolinguals when Finnish and Russian vocabularies were counted together.

Generation System of Attractive Summary of Story

2008 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-47
Author(s):  
Shunsuke Nakano ◽  
◽  
Takehisa Onisawa
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Generation System ◽  
New Words ◽  
The One ◽  
Appearance Frequency

This paper proposes a method to generate an attractive summary from a story and describes an attractive summary generation system based on the method. The system consists of two sections. The one is the section extracting an important part of a story, i.e., the part of a new turn of a story defined by the appearance frequency of new words in a story. The other is the section generating a summary from the extracted important part. This section chooses important sentences and deletes unnecessary phrases from the extracted part. Finally, this paper confirms the validity of the presented approach by subject’s experiments.

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