The early acquisition of word meaning

1976 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter A. Reich
Keyword(s):  
Early Development ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
Early Acquisition ◽  
Special Case

ABSTRACTThe development of the meaning of shoe in one pre-lingual child, plus additional examples drawn from the literature, support a notion that word meanings start out very narrow and only become overextended later, though sometimes before the word is spoken. This appears to contradict the course of development of meaning hypothesized by Clark (1973). It is argued that the early development of word meaning is simply a special case of a much more general learning process.

scholarly journals Word meaning access: The one-to-many mapping from form to meaning

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer M Rodd
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Contextual Cues ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Core Feature ◽  
Distributional Information ◽  
Current Context ◽  
The One

This chapter focuses on the process by which stored knowledge about a word’s form (orthographic or phonological) maps onto stored knowledge about its meaning. This mapping is made challenging by the ambiguity that is ubiquitous in natural language: most familiar words can refer to multiple different concepts. This one-to-many mapping from form to meaning within the lexicon is a core feature of word-meaning access. Fluent, accurate word-meaning access requires that comprehenders integrate multiple cues in order to determine which of a word’s possible semantic features are relevant in the current context. Specifically, word-meaning access is guided by (i) distributional information about the a priori relative likelihoods of different word meanings and (ii) a wide range of contextual cues that indicate which meanings are most likely in the current context.

Using Speakers' Referential Intentions to Model Early Cross-Situational Word Learning

2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 578-585 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael C. Frank ◽  
Noah D. Goodman ◽  
Joshua B. Tenenbaum
Keyword(s):  
Computational Model ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Mutual Exclusivity ◽  
Object Individuation ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
Inference Problems ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
Situational Learning

Word learning is a “chicken and egg” problem. If a child could understand speakers' utterances, it would be easy to learn the meanings of individual words, and once a child knows what many words mean, it is easy to infer speakers' intended meanings. To the beginning learner, however, both individual word meanings and speakers' intentions are unknown. We describe a computational model of word learning that solves these two inference problems in parallel, rather than relying exclusively on either the inferred meanings of utterances or cross-situational word-meaning associations. We tested our model using annotated corpus data and found that it inferred pairings between words and object concepts with higher precision than comparison models. Moreover, as the result of making probabilistic inferences about speakers' intentions, our model explains a variety of behavioral phenomena described in the word-learning literature. These phenomena include mutual exclusivity, one-trial learning, cross-situational learning, the role of words in object individuation, and the use of inferred intentions to disambiguate reference.

scholarly journals Neural Dynamics of Associative Learning during Human Sleep

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 1708-1715
Author(s):  
Andrés Canales-Johnson ◽  
Emiliano Merlo ◽  
Tristan A Bekinschtein ◽  
Anat Arzi
Keyword(s):  
Associative Learning ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Theta Activity ◽  
Neural Dynamics ◽  
New Associations ◽  
Human Sleep ◽  
New Information ◽  
Early Acquisition ◽  
Dynamic Interplay

Abstract Recent evidence indicates that humans can learn entirely new information during sleep. To elucidate the neural dynamics underlying sleep-learning, we investigated brain activity during auditory–olfactory discriminatory associative learning in human sleep. We found that learning-related delta and sigma neural changes are involved in early acquisition stages, when new associations are being formed. In contrast, learning-related theta activity emerged in later stages of the learning process, after tone–odor associations were already established. These findings suggest that learning new associations during sleep is signaled by a dynamic interplay between slow-waves, sigma, and theta activity.

Children's theories of word meaning: The role of shape similarity in early acquisition

1994 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mutsumi Imai ◽  
Dedre Gentner ◽  
Nobuko Uchida
Keyword(s):  
Word Meaning ◽  
Shape Similarity ◽  
Early Acquisition

Kennis van Lexicale Relaties Bij Blinde Kinderen

1998 ◽  
Vol 60 ◽  
pp. 47-52
Author(s):  
Anita van Loon-Vervoorn ◽  
Loekie Eibers
Keyword(s):  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
Blind Children

Blind children acquire their mother tongue in a relatively 'decontextualized' way, as compared to their sighted peers. Many word meanings which sighted children learn in a predominantly visual experiential context, have to be verbally explained and defined to blind children. In consequence, blind children may be deficient in the more experientially based aspects of word meaning, but may be aheadof their,sighted peers in their acquisition of the more verbally based meaning relations between words. Our findings indicate that blind children do not seem to be 'ahead' of sighted children in the knowledge about verbally based relations but rather in the accessibility of the relations which they have in their lexicon.

The Acquisition of Color Words

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katie Wagner ◽  
David Barner
Keyword(s):  
Color Word ◽  
Inductive Learning ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Electromagnetic Spectrum ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
Word Acquisition ◽  
Color Categories ◽  
Word Boundaries ◽  
Different Color

Human experience of color results from a complex interplay of perceptual and linguistic systems. At the lowest level of perception, the human visual system transforms the visible light portion of the electromagnetic spectrum into a rich, continuous three-dimensional experience of color. Despite our ability to perceptually discriminate millions of different color shades, most languages categorize color into a number of discrete color categories. While the meanings of color words are constrained by perception, perception does not fully define them. Once color words are acquired, they may in turn influence our memory and processing speed for color, although it is unlikely that language influences the lowest levels of color perception. One approach to examining the relationship between perception and language in forming our experience of color is to study children as they acquire color language. Children produce color words in speech for many months before acquiring adult meanings for color words. Research in this area has focused on whether children’s difficulties stem from (a) an inability to identify color properties as a likely candidate for word meanings, or alternatively (b) inductive learning of language-specific color word boundaries. Lending plausibility to the first account, there is evidence that children more readily attend to object traits like shape, rather than color, as likely candidates for word meanings. However, recent evidence has found that children have meanings for some color words before they begin to produce them in speech, indicating that in fact, they may be able to successfully identify color as a candidate for word meaning early in the color word learning process. There is also evidence that prelinguistic infants, like adults, perceive color categorically. While these perceptual categories likely constrain the meanings that children consider, they cannot fully define color word meanings because languages vary in both the number and location of color word boundaries. Recent evidence suggests that the delay in color word acquisition primarily stems from an inductive process of refining these boundaries.

“Corplum is a core from a plum”: The advantage of bilingual children in the analysis of word meaning from verbal context

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEFKA H. MARINOVA-TODD
Keyword(s):  
Independent Schools ◽  
Standardized Test ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Receptive Vocabulary ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Test Results ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
Word Context ◽  
The Usa

The possible advantage of bilingual children over monolinguals in analyzing word meanings from verbal context was examined. The subjects were 40 third-grade children (20 bilingual and 20 monolingual) recruited from independent schools in the USA. The two groups of participants were compared on their performance on a standardized test of receptive vocabulary and an experimental measure of word meanings, the Word–Context Test. Results revealed that on average, the bilingual children had smaller vocabularies in English. The bilinguals deduced the meaning from context of more words than the monolingual children, although there were no differences between groups on the rate of reaching the target meanings for words on which they were successful, and on the quality of their definitions. Moreover, bilingual children approached the task differently and they showed greater flexibility when analyzing word meanings from verbal context, thus indicating that bilinguals may be more efficient vocabulary learners than monolinguals.

Frame-based instruction: Teaching polysemous nouns in the L2

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 171-192
Author(s):  
Ronald Kemsies
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Method ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Teaching Methodologies ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
Multiple Meaning ◽  
Null Result ◽  
Cognitive Semantic ◽  
Widespread Belief ◽  
Polysemous Word ◽  
Based Instruction

Abstract Across the various L2 teaching methodologies, polysemy represents a mostly neglected phenomenon. Due to the widespread belief that multiple meaning extensions are largely arbitrary as well as due to the lack of a systematic teaching method, rote learning of polysemous word meanings frequently appears to be a common practice in L2 classrooms. A cognitive semantic view of polysemy claims that polysemous meaning extensions are motivated and form a systematic network (Lakoff 1987). Against this backdrop, this article introduces a CL-based learning/teaching technique in order to systematically approximate the intended meanings of polysemous L2 nouns in context. ‘Frame-based instruction’ capitalizes on the notion of frame-inherent ‘slots’ and ‘fillers’ (cf., e.g., Barsalou 1992; Martin 1997; Minsky 1975). According to this view, polysemy arises through context- dependent slot-filler configurations. The method grants L2 learners access to these structures through a systematic array of questions scanning generic slots within the contextual frame and the polyseme-frame. In doing so, it guides them to unveil the intended polysemous word meaning in context in a step-by-step fashion. After an illustration of the method on the basis of a practical example, an empirical study is presented which tested the functionality of frame-based instruction in a classroom setting with 13-year-old EFL learners in Austria. Although the experiment produced a statistical null result, several future avenues of research crystallized with regard to an improved implementation of the method.

scholarly journals Context-dependent Semantic Processing in the Human Brain: Evidence from Idiom Comprehension

2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 762-776 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joost Rommers ◽  
Ton Dijkstra ◽  
Marcel Bastiaansen
Keyword(s):  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Unrelated Word ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
Idiom Comprehension ◽  
Late Positivity ◽  
Gamma Frequency ◽  
Band Power ◽  
Power Increase

Language comprehension involves activating word meanings and integrating them with the sentence context. This study examined whether these routines are carried out even when they are theoretically unnecessary, namely, in the case of opaque idiomatic expressions, for which the literal word meanings are unrelated to the overall meaning of the expression. Predictable words in sentences were replaced by a semantically related or unrelated word. In literal sentences, this yielded previously established behavioral and electrophysiological signatures of semantic processing: semantic facilitation in lexical decision, a reduced N400 for semantically related relative to unrelated words, and a power increase in the gamma frequency band that was disrupted by semantic violations. However, the same manipulations in idioms yielded none of these effects. Instead, semantic violations elicited a late positivity in idioms. Moreover, gamma band power was lower in correct idioms than in correct literal sentences. It is argued that the brain's semantic expectancy and literal word meaning integration operations can, to some extent, be “switched off” when the context renders them unnecessary. Furthermore, the results lend support to models of idiom comprehension that involve unitary idiom representations.

Semantic Models and Translating

Target ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Kussmaul
Keyword(s):  
Word Meaning ◽  
Semantic Feature ◽  
Feature Analysis ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
The Core ◽  
Semantic Models ◽  
Structural Semantics ◽  
Semantic Feature Analysis

Abstract This paper examines the relevance of three semantic models for translation. Structural semantics, more specifically semantic feature analysis, has given rise to the maxim that we should translate "bundles of semantic features". Prototype semantics suggests that word-meanings have cores and fuzzy edges which are influenced by culture. For translation this means that we do not necessarily translate bundles of features but have to decide whether to focus on the core or the fuzzy edges of the meaning of a particular word. Scenesand-frames semantics suggests that word meaning is influenced by context and the situation we are in. Word-meaning is thus not static but dynamic, and it is this dynamism which should govern our decisions as translators.

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