This study examined prior qualitative differences in the process of the emergence of verb use in two sisters when they were each 12 to 24 months of age (the older sister is 2 years and 9 months older than the younger sister). Daily diaries on both children were kept by the mother, who noted emergent structure and vocabulary. Systematic Analysis of…

Two studies addressed the relative strengths of object kind bias and syntactic knowledge in 2-year-olds' inductions of word meaning. The study looked at children's interpretations of novel proper names for familiar and unfamiliar objects. In each study, 10 children were assigned to each of 2 conditions (familiar and unfamiliar) and shown 2 cats…

A study tested the validity of a theory of count/mass syntax in word learning. The theory proposes that children infer one of two procedures, depending on whether the referent is an object or a non-solid substance. Subjects were 36 2-year-olds, divided according to three experimental conditions. All were taught a novel word with reference to…

This study explores children's development of dual-level phonological processing posited by generative theory for adult language users. Evidence suggesting 6-year-olds' utilization of morphophonemic segments was obtained by asking children to imitate complex words, omit specified portions, and discuss the meaning of the resulting word-parts. The…

A line of reasoning used in recent research on language acquisition assumes that a child acquiring the language has only two reliable sources of information available about the target grammar: a set of grammatical principles and the primary data of the language spoken around him. A third kind of evidence, negative evidence, would be helpful but is…

A study investigated children's hypotheses about the meanings of novel verbs on the child's first exposure to the verb. The study focused on the properties (action, result, or instrument) ascribed to the verbs before any information was given about word meaning. Subjects were 3-year-olds, 5-year-olds, and adults. The stimuli were six sets of…

Children's ability to learn aspects of their language in the absence of supportive evidence is discussed. Specifically, the learnability of null subjects in languages in which they appear is examined when indirect negative evidence is present. It is concluded that parameters such as the null subject parameter may not generate languages, strictly…

Describes a study of 40 monolingual Spanish-speaking Peruvian children in which comprehension of six locative phrases was tested. Results are analyzed in terms of developmental sequence, locative acquisition, the effects of intrinsic label on projective locative comprehension, the effects of linguistic form, and the effects of context. (SED)

Relationships between syntactic and semantic aspects of mothers' speech and infants' word acquisition was examined in 27 mother-infant dyads. Results indicated that the more the mother differentiated the complexity of her speech to child and adult, the earlier the child attained 20 words. The more the mother used adult-basic labels in her speech,…

Examines speech samples from six children aged 2 years to 2 years, 5 months, with Mean Lengths of Utterance ranging from 2.93 to 4.14, were examined for evidence of six syntactic categories: determiner, adjective, noun, noun phrase, preposition, and prepositional phrase. (HOD)

Reports on two studies that examined the natural process of word learning in children 4-11 years old. The children hear the new words in a conversation, a story, and paired with a definition. Results indicate that children at all ages could acquire a partial semantic representation from a single exposure. (SED)

Examines the development of children's knowledge about the presuppositions of cognitive verbs that take sentential complements. Results indicate that the presuppositions of the factives "know,""forget," and "remember" and the nonfactive "think" are not learned until age four. "Believe," which has factive and nonfactive properties, is mastered…

Investigates the comprehension of nine intonational contrasts in ten-year-olds and adults. Overall performance on the tasks was much lower among the children than among the adults. Results indicate that hypotheses concerning the chronological order of development of meanings dependent on groupings, nucleus placements, and tones are too simplistic.…

To test D. Stampe's hypothesis about the development of phonological processes, 60 children (21 to 48 months old) were placed into groups based on mean length of utterance (MLU) and chronological age. MLU was found to be the best classification for describing the phonological processes. (Author/SEW)

Different experimental techniques for empirical assessment of children's linguistic ability have produced conflicting evidence. A number of such contradictions are discussed, in the context of an analysis of the potential weaknesses, and consequent requirements, of both comprehension and production tasks. (A commentary by P. L. Harris appears on…