The following paper is an account of empirical research in lexical acquisition, an ongoing study whose preliminary findings were reported at the Neuchâtel colloquium May 1976 (Levenston and Blum 1977). A discussion of the research methodology has also been published (Levenston and Blum 1978), as well as an attempt to link this work with studies of lexical simplification in other linguistic contexts (Blum and Levenston 1977). Before discussing in detail the current findings, it seems appropriate to summarize briefly the preceding research, of which they form an integral part.
Introduction
