Rm. Golinkoff et al., EARLY OBJECT LABELS - THE CASE FOR A DEVELOPMENTAL LEXICAL PRINCIPLESFRAMEWORK, Journal of child language, 21(1), 1994, pp. 125-155
Universally, object names make up the largest proportion of any word t
ype found in children's early lexicons. Here we present and critically
evaluate a set of six lexical principles (some previously proposed an
d some new) for making object label learning a manageable task. Overal
l, the principles have the effect of reducing the amount of informatio
n that language-learning children must consider for what a new word mi
ght mean. These principles are constructed by children in a two-tiered
developmental sequence, as a function of their sensitivity to linguis
tic input, contextual information, and social-interactional cues. Thus
, the process of lexical acquisition changes as a result of the partic
ular principles a given child has at his or her disposal. For children
who have only the principles of the first tier (REFERENCE, EXTENDIBIL
ITY, and OBJECT SCOPE), word learning has a deliberate and laborious l
ook. The principles of the second tier (CATEGORICAL SCOPE, NOVEL NAME
- NAMELESS CATEGORY' or N3C, and CONVENTIONALITY) enable the child to
acquire many new labels rapidly. The present unified account is argued
to have a number of advantages over treating such principles separate
ly and non-developmentally. Further, the explicit recognition that the
acquisition and operation of these principles is influenced by the ch
ild's interpretation of both linguistic and non-linguistic input is se
en as an advance.