Author: Naigles, L.
Description: Verb learning is clearly a function of observation of real-world contingencies; however, it is argued that such observational information is insufficient to account fully for vocabulary acquisition. This paper provides an experimental validation of Landau & Gleitman’s (1985) syntactic bootstrapping procedure; namely, that children may use syntactic information to learn new verbs. Pairs of actions were presented simultaneously with a nonsense verb in one of two syntactic structures. The actions were subsequently separated, and the children (MA = 2;1) were asked to select which action was the referent for the verb. The children’s choice of referent was found to be a function of the syntactic structure in which the verb had appeared.
Subject headings: Verb learning; Vocabulary
Publication year: 1990
Journal or book title: Journal of Child Language
Volume: 17
Issue: 02
Pages: 357
Find the full text :Â https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-child-language/article/children-use-syntax-to-learn-verb-meanings/4E19981CDD2D247CBB37D32A45BAFE31
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Type: Journal Article
Serial number: 2076