EARLY OBJECT LABELS - THE CASE FOR A DEVELOPMENTAL LEXICAL PRINCIPLESFRAMEWORK

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.