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Lecture 10 Semantic Development in Preschool Children

The document discusses semantic development in preschool children. It covers how children rapidly acquire new words and concepts between ages 1.5-6, adding about 5 new words per day using strategies like fast-mapping. The development of different word types is examined, including nouns, verbs, pronouns, prepositions, and kinship terms. Children's understanding of semantic relationships involving location, time, and physical properties is also explored.

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Edi Hendri M
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74 views14 pages

Lecture 10 Semantic Development in Preschool Children

The document discusses semantic development in preschool children. It covers how children rapidly acquire new words and concepts between ages 1.5-6, adding about 5 new words per day using strategies like fast-mapping. The development of different word types is examined, including nouns, verbs, pronouns, prepositions, and kinship terms. Children's understanding of semantic relationships involving location, time, and physical properties is also explored.

Uploaded by

Edi Hendri M
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Semantic Development

in Preschool Children

Prof. B. Epstein
SPEC 2231
Semantic Development
• Rapid lexical & relational concept acquisition
occurs during the preschool years.
• Age 1.5-6: Child adds ≈ 5 words to his/her
lexicon every day.
• Fast-mapping – strategy to infer a connection
between a word & its referent after only 1
exposure.
Strategies: Range of meanings constrained by
the situation & by known meanings, novel
name-no name strategy, associational strategy –
regularities (e.g., word order, bound morphemes)
are used for clues, phonotactic probability
- Tentative definition ➔ Definition is gradually
refined. 2
Semantic Development cont.
• What affects retrieval of newly learned
words?
• 2 principles that may be used to establish
meanings:
1) contrast – the assumption that every
form (e.g., morpheme, word) contrasts to
every other in meaning.
2) conventionality – the expectation that
certain forms will be used to convey certain
meanings (e.g., -ing means action).
3
Semantic Development cont.
• Noun definitions - include physical,
functional, use, & locational properties.

• Verb definitions – explains who or what


does the action, to what or whom it’s done,
& where, when, & with what it’s done, but
not how & why it’s done.

4
Lexical Development
• Vocabulary growth between ages 1-3 is +
related to the diversity of words in
maternal speech & to maternal
language & literacy skills.

• Parental storybook reading (even with


only low levels of language participation –
e.g., naming & describing) helps children
expand their vocabularies.
5
Interrogatives
• Early question forms:
1) what & where
2) who, whose, & which
3) when, how, & why
Later forms: Involve concepts of cause,
manner, or time.
• Children seem to answer on the basis of verbs
when they don’t understand the question word.
• Children rely heavily on contextual info when
answering questions.
• Causal questions (why) are particularly difficult
because reverse-order thinking is required.
6
Temporal Relations
• Temporal terms: when, before, since, while
• Words of order (after) are produced before
words of duration (since) with –ing (running).
• Words of duration precede terms of simultaneity
(while).
• Temporal terms are first used as prepositions
and then as conjunctions.
e.g., You go after me. ➔ You can go home after
we eat dinner.
• Strategies used when temporal terms are
unknown: Rely on the order of mention, make
the main clause the first event, use knowledge of
real-life sequences.
7
Physical Relations
• The child learns that the words are
opposites & then learns the dimensions to
which each term refers.
• Less specific terms (big & little) are
typically learned first (vs. deep & shallow).
• The positive member of each relational
pair (big) is learned first.
• Learning of term is dependent on context.
8
Locational Prepositions
• Age 2: in & on, first English prepositions
emerge.
• Age 3: Children show understanding of in, on, &
under.
• 40 months: next to is learned.
• ~Age 4: behind, in back of, & in front of are
learned.
• Terms that indicate movement toward (e.g., to)
are simpler than their opposites (e.g., from).
• Before age 4: in, on, & under are mainly used
as prepositions for object location; up, down, &
off are used as locational prepositions & verb
particles.
9
Comprehension of Locational &
Temporal Relationships

10
Kinship Terms
• Mother, father, sister, brother ➔ son,
daughter, grandfather, grandmother,
parent ➔ uncle, aunt, cousin, nephew,
niece
• Terms are initially related to specific
individuals & to personal experience.
• Most major kinship terms are understood
by age 10.

11
Pronouns
• Anaphoric reference – referral to what
has come before.
e.g., The man was heating his dinner
when it caught fire.
• Subjective pronouns (e.g., he, she, they)
are acquired ➔ objective pronouns (e.g.,
him, her, them) ➔ possessive pronouns
(e.g., his, her, their) ➔ reflexive
pronouns (e.g., himself, herself,
themselves).
12
Pronouns cont.
• Long acquisition period reflects
interaction of form, content, & use:
pronouns fill syntactic & semantic roles
(e.g., based on gender) & are cohesive
discourse devices.

• Deictic use of pronouns (e.g., I, me) is


acquired before the anaphoric one (e.g.,
it).
13
Acquisition of Pronouns

14

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