title: The effect of homonymy on learning correctly articulated versus misarticulated words.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The goal of the current study was to examine the effect of homonymy (learning a second meaning for a known word form vs. learning a novel meaning and novel word form) and articulation accuracy (IN vs. OUT sounds) on word learning by preschool children. An added goal was to determine whether word frequency altered the effect of homonymy on word learning.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-nine 3- to 4-year-old children were taught homonyms and novel words. Stimuli further varied in whether homonymy was present in both the adult input and the child's output (as for IN sounds) versus present only in the child's output (as for OUT sounds).
  
  
  RESULTS
  For IN sounds, children learned homonyms more rapidly than novel words. Moreover, the homonym advantage was modulated by word frequency, such that children learned a new meaning for a high-frequency word more accurately than they learned a new meaning for a low-frequency word. In contrast, for OUT sounds, there was no evidence that homonymy influenced learning.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Homonymy in the adult input facilitates word learning by preschool children, whereas homonymy in the child's output alone does not. This effect is captured in a usage-based model of phonology and the lexicon.
authors.affiliation: University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA. hstorkel@ku.edu
authors.forename: Holly L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Storkel
authors.forename: Junko
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Maekawa
authors.forename: Andrew J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Aschenbrenner
mesh_terms: D001184:Articulation Disorders / Q000517:prevention & control*; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D012660:Semantics; D013060:Speech; D014706:Verbal Learning; D014825:Vocabulary