Novel noun and verb learning in Chinese-, English-, and Japanese-speaking children.
When can children speaking Japanese, English, or Chinese map and extend novel nouns and verbs? Across 6 studies, 3- and 5-year-old children in all 3 languages map and extend novel nouns more readily than novel verbs. This finding prevails even in languages like Chinese and Japanese that are assumed to be verb-friendly languages (e.g., T. Tardif, 1996). The results also suggest that the input language uniquely shapes verb learning such that English-speaking children require grammatical support to learn verbs, whereas Chinese children require pragmatic as well as grammatical support. This research bears on how universally shared cognitive factors and language-specific linguistic factors interact in lexical development.
Imai
Mutsumi
M
Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Keio University at Shonan-Fujisawa, 5322 Endo, Fujisawa, Kanagawa, 252-8520, Japan. imai@sfc.keio.ac.jp
Li
Lianjing
L
Haryu
Etsuko
E
Okada
Hiroyuki
H
Hirsh-Pasek
Kathy
K
Golinkoff
Roberta Michnick
RM
Shigematsu
Jun
J
D044466:Asian People; D002648:Child; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D014706:Verbal Learning; D014825:Vocabulary