Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T20:53:40.588Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Up front: the acquisition of a concept and a word

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Susan Cohen Levine  and
Susan Carey
Susan Cohen Levine
Affiliation:
University of Chicago – Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Susan Carey
Affiliation:
University of Chicago – Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Thirty-six 2- to 3-year-old children were given linguistic and non-linguistic tasks in order to determine whether the words front and back introduce the concept of ‘front–back’ orientation or whether the concept precedes the words. Contrary to prediction, a complex disjunctive concept of ‘front–back’ orientation was found to precede any knowledge of the words front and back. Results of the linguistic task show that the word back is comprehended before front, and further that children at an intermediate state of lexical knowledge interpret front as if it means back.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 9 , Issue 3 , October 1982 , pp. 645 - 657
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bloom, L. (1973). One word at a time: the use of single word utterances before syntax. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Bowerman, M. (1973). Learning to talk: a cross-linguistic study of early syntactic development with special reference to Finnish. Cambridge: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Bowerman, M. (1977). The structure and origin of semantic categories in the language learning child. Paper presented for Burg Wartenstein Symposium No. 74.Google Scholar
Brown, R. (1957). Words and things. Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press.Google Scholar
Brown, R. (1973). A first language: the early stages. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Bruner, J. S., Goodnow, J. J. & Austin, G. A. (1956). A study of thinking. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Carey, S. (1978). Less may never mean more. In Campbell, R. N. & Smith, P. T. (eds), Recent advances in the psychology of language. New York: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Carey, S. (in press). Semantic development: state of the art. In Gleitman, L. & Wanner, E. (eds), Language acquisition. Cambridge: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Carey, S. & Bartlett, E. (1978). Acquiring a single new word. PRCLD 15. 17–19.Google Scholar
Clark, H. H. (1973). Space, time, semantics, and the child. In Moore, T. E. (ed.), Cognitive development and the acquisition of language. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Eiser, C. (1975). Egocentrism and the child's concept of space. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Bristol.Google Scholar
Fillmore, C. (1971). Santa Cruz lectures on deixis. (Summer program in linguistics, University of California at Santa Cruz.)Google Scholar
Fodor, J. (1972). Some reflections on L. S. Vygotsky's thought and language. Cognition 1. 83–95.Google Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, S. (1979). Structure in a manual communication system developed without a conventional language model: language without a helping hand. In Whitaker, H. & Whitaker, H. A. (eds), Studies in neurolinguistics, Vol. 4. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, S. & Feldman, H. (1977). The development of language-like communication without a language model. Science 197. 401–3.Google Scholar
Greenfield, P. & Smith, J. H. (1976). The structure of communication in early language development. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Harris, L. J. & Strommen, E. A. (1972). The role of front-back features in children's front, back, and beside placements of objects. MPQ 18. 259–71.Google Scholar
Harris, L. J. & Strommen, E. A. (1974). What is the front of a simple geometric form? PerceptPsychophys 15. 571–80.Google Scholar
Johnston, J. & Slobin, D. I. (1977). The development of locative expressions in English, Italian, Serbo-Croatian and Turkish. PRCLD 13. 134–47.Google Scholar
Jones, L. V. & Wepman, J. M. (1966). A spoken word count. Chicago: Language Research Associates.Google Scholar
Kuczaj, S. A. & Maratsos, M. P. (1975). On the acquisition of front, back and side. ChDev 46. 202–10.Google Scholar
Leehey, S. C. (1973). The child's lexical and conceptual knowledge of front and back. Unpublished MS.Google Scholar
Miller, G. A. & Johnson-Laird, P. N. (1976). Language and perception. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Nelson, K. (1973). Structure and strategy in learning to talk. Monogr Soc Res Child Devel. 38., No. 149.Google Scholar
Nelson, K. (1974). Concept, word and sentence: interrelations in acquisition and development. PsycholRev 81. 267–84.Google Scholar
Piaget, J. (1928). Judgement and reasoning in the child. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Rosch, E. (1973). On the internal structure of perceptual and semantic categories. In Moore, T. E. (ed.), Cognitive development and the acquisition of language. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Slobin, D. I. (1973). Cognitive prerequisites for the development of grammar. In Ferguson, C. A. & Slobin, D. I. (eds), Studies of child language development. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Tanz, C. M. (1980). Studies in the acquisition of deictic terms. Cambridge: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Teller, P. (1969). Some discussion and extension of Manfred Bierwisch's work on German adjectivals. FL 5. 185–217.Google Scholar
Vygotsky, L. S. (1962). Thought and language. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Wilcox, S. & Palermo, D. S. (1977). If less means more, so does dax. Paper presented at the 49th Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association,Chicago.Google Scholar
Winer, B. J. (1971). Statistical principles and experimental design. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar