Examines (1) preschool children's production of multiple, hierarchically related labels; (2) the pragmatic consequences of the inherent asymmetry of inclusion relations; and (3) the influence of morphology (modifier plus noun constructions vs. simple lexemes) at the subordinate level. Performance shows an inability to label objects flexibly at…

In two studies, two year olds learned a novel word for a particular stuffed animal. When the animal was familiar, children interpreted the novel word as a proper noun. When the animal was unfamiliar, children frequently interpreted the novel word as a count noun referring to a kind of object. (BC)

Asserts that the model of the adult-infant dyad developing interaction, and then language, in the infant, is a better model than adult language for the analysis of some communication-like systems. When applied to silent film, the adult-infant dyad leads to the extraction of six principles of visually based developmental communication. (25…

In 2 experiments, 15- and 21-month-old infants were presented with a target object and asked to select an object taxonomically or thematically related to the target object. The target object was introduced with or without a novel nonsense noun. Results indicated that novel nouns focused infants' attention on taxonomic relations. (MDM)

Examined test-retest reliability for Test of Language Development-2: Primary (TOLD-2 P) and Intermediate (TOLD-2 I). Findings from 60 children revealed that, with few exceptions, both tests had satisfactory reliability over 2-week interval. Less satisfactory reliability was found for TOLD-2 P Semantics Composite (ages 4, 6 ,and 8); Phonology…

A plural elicitation task and a nominal compounding task were administered to 18 children (age 5-6 years) with specific language impairment (SLI) and 2 control groups. SLI children's performance was affected by input frequency; three explanations within a model of linguistic normalcy are proposed to account for this frequency effect. (Author/DB)

Attempted replication of Gibbs and Moise (1997) experiments regarding the recognition of a distinction between what is said and what is implicated. Results showed that, under certain conditions, subject selected implicatures when asked to select the paraphrase best reflecting what a speaker has said. Suggests that results can be explained with the…

Using a modified human paradigm, this article explores two language-competent bonobos' abilities to map new words to objects in realistic surroundings with few exposures to the referents. Also investigates the necessity of the apes maintaining visual contact with the item to map the novel name onto the novel object. (Author/VWL)

Critiques an article that appeared in an earlier issue of this journal on language choice and raising children in bilingual households. The author of that article responds to these comments. (Author/VWL)

Children's ability to distinguish between the text (what was said) and the intentional structure (what was meant) was interrogated by means of verbatim and paraphrase questions in two types of discourse: narratives and nursery rhymes. (Author/VWL)

In six experiments, infants were habituated to word-object pairings and then presented with a familiar word and object in a previously seen and a new pairing. Found that 14-month olds formed word-object associations under these conditions when the objects were moving; 8- to 12-month olds did not form associations but appeared to process the word…

Investigates acquisition of noun-drop in Spanish. Indicates that rich agreement morphology is not a sufficient condition for noun-drop. Supports a model of the human language faculty in which points of syntactic variation are not fully reducible to the overt inflectional and declensional morphology. (Author/VWL)

This study investigated novel word acquisition by 18- and 24-month-old children in the context of adult referential behavior independent of variations in salience. Findings suggest that 24-month olds use referential intent of the speaker to learn new words, but when learning, they may have a less secure grasp on the meaning of speakers'…

Uses child language development as a neutral field in which to contemplate the nature of knowledge, formulating three generalizations about knowledge from data on language acquisition and exemplifying each generalization with familiar phenomena observed in child language development. Suggests how the generalizations might relate to the use of…

A review of research on brain imaging of developmental stuttering concludes that findings increasingly point to a failure of normal temporal lobe activation during speech that may either contribute to (or is the result of) a breakdown in the sequencing of processing among premotor regions implicated in phonologic planning. (Contains references.)…