How fast does a child learn a word?
This discussion argues that for many word meanings, the child has to assemble a new category, using relatively slow information-sifting processes. This does not cause high semantic errors, because children probably hold off using a word until much such sifting has occurred, rather than producing the new word as soon as they have any information on it.
Maratsos
Michael
M
Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455 marat001@umn.edu.