title: Early Verb-Action and Noun-Object Mapping Across Sensory Modalities: A Neuro-Developmental View.
abstract: The authors provide an alternative to the traditional view that verbs are harder to learn than nouns by reviewing three lines of behavioral and neurophysiological evidence in word-mapping development across cultures. First, preverbal infants tune into word-action and word-object pairings using domain-general mechanisms. Second, while post-verbal infants from noun-friendly language environments experience verb-action mapping difficulty, infants from verb-friendly language environments do not. Third, children use language-specific conventions to learn all types of words, although still strongly influenced by their language environment. Additionally, the authors suggest neurophysiological research to advance these lines of evidence beyond traditional views of word learning.
authors.affiliation: a Communication Sciences and Disorders , University of Missouri-Columbia , Columbia , Missouri.
authors.forename: Lakshmi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gogate
authors.affiliation: b Psychological Sciences , Purdue University , West Lafayette , Indiana.
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hollich
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003142:Communication; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007804:Language Development; D008037:Linguistics; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D019303:Multilingualism; D010700:Phonetics; D012660:Semantics; D012931:Social Environment; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D014706:Verbal Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology; D014825:Vocabulary