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ERIC Number: EJ1307311
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021-Jul
Pages: 9
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0012-1649
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Is 2-Year-Old Children's Referential Disambiguation of a Novel Word Primarily Aimed at Identifying the Word Meaning or at Understanding Their Communicative Partner?
Developmental Psychology, v57 n7 p1058-1066 Jul 2021
During everyday conversations, young children are often challenged with the task of correctly identifying the referent of novel words. What is their primary aim when they try to do so? We propose that by being motivated to successfully participate in communicative interactions, children primarily aim at comprehending what the speaker intends to mean in the specific communicative context, rather than understanding what the word conventionally means. This proposal suggests that in the absence of clear referential cues, when referential disambiguation could be guided only by two distinct factors--the novelty of possible referents or the context in which the labeling occurs--children will rather rely on the pragmatic cues of the situation than on the novelty of the objects. To investigate this hypothesis, we tested 132 two-year-old Hungarian children (67 girls and 65 boys) in a referential disambiguation paradigm. Confirming our prediction, children identified the referent by inferring the intended meaning of the speaker, and not by relying on the novelty of the objects. Thus, when pragmatic cues are provided, children primarily rely on these cues to understand the intended meaning of the speaker. We suggest that this inference to the intended meaning of the speaker might serve most of the times as the input of children's word acquisition processes.
American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Hungary
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A