Deck 5: Lexical Development: Learning Words

Question 1

The relational relativity hypothesis refers to:

A) children learning verbs before nouns.
B) children learning nouns before verbs.
C) how children learn meanings for nouns.
D) how children learn meanings for verbs.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Katharine Nelson's (1973) study of children's first words to 50 words illustrated that

A) children acquire six categories of words.
B) the greatest number of words learned were general and specific nominals.
C) children acquired the use of action words.
D) All of these answers.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Research on the occurrence of word spurts indicates that:

A) the majority of children have a noticeable word spurt between 14 months of age and the time that they learn 75 words.
B) children who have word spurts have a concurrent increase in the use of object labels.
C) all normally developing children have word spurts.
D) None of these answers are true.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

The natural partitions hypothesis refers to:

A) children learning nouns before verbs.
B) children learning verbs before nouns.
C) how children learn meanings for nouns.
D) how children learn meanings for verbs.

Question 5

The vocabulary spurt that occurs around 18 months has been noted to include the acquisition of:

A) all kinds of words equally.
B) primarily object labels.
C) primarily labels for actions.
D) primarily words for descriptions.

Question 6

____________________ are the largest category of words in children's first 50 words.

A) Verbs
B) Descriptors
C) Nominals
D) Words that express motions

Question 7

Words that refer to things are called:

A) prelexical words
B) nominal
C) proto words
D) descriptors

Question 8

A mental lexicon is:

A) the set of words that a speaker typically uses.
B) the dictionary of words that a speaker typically uses.
C) the definitions of abstract words that people know.
D) a theoretical construct of how speakers understand words.

Question 9

If all of a child's early words are context-bound, then this suggests:

A) evidence of a limitation in the child within the prelexical stage.
B) a cognitive delay in the child's development.
C) evidence of a limitation in the child within the nominal stage.
D) a cognitive and language delay in the child.

Question 10

One of the first words of a young child was "go." For almost a month, the child said this word only when her mother was buckling her in her car seat. This is an example of:

A) a mental lexicon
B) a proto word
C) context-bound word use
D) a hyper word

Question 11

A child looks out the window of the car in the countryside and calls all four-legged animals "cow." This is an example of:

A) under extension
B) overextension
C) word spurt
D) word mapping

Question 12

Research on early word comprehension:

A) centers on questions concerning the age at which children have comprehension.
B) focuses on the internal changes in children's mental lexicon change over time.
C) indicates that there is a difference in quantity and quality between children's comprehension and production vocabularies.
D) All of these answers are true.

Question 13

A child is standing by the door saying, "uh, uh, uh" because she wants to go outside where her sister is playing. In this example, "uh, uh, uh" would:

A) qualify as a word because her mother understands what she wants.
B) qualify as a word because she has said it before in the same context.
C) not qualify as a word because it is not a symbol that is used in other contexts to mean, "Go outside".
D) not qualify as a word because the child does not use it every time she wants to go outside.

Question 14

It has been hypothesized that nominals are more prevalent in children's early vocabulary because they:

A) encode concrete perceptual entities that children can directly experience.
B) are easier to say.
C) tend to be shorter words.
D) are more interesting to children.

Question 15

Researchers disagree on the significance of the occurrence of word spurts, saying that they:

A) may be caused by advances in cognitive development.
B) are erratic and not clearly meaningful to language development milestones.
C) relate more to the child's understanding of objects than of object categories.
D) represent a critical stage of language and cognitive development.

Question 16

Children typically say their first words around:

A) 8-10 months
B) 10-15 months
C) 18 months
D) 24 months

Question 17

Children learn nominals first. This is:

A) universal across all languages.
B) a factor of cultural bias.
C) not universal across all languages.
D) evidence of cognitive development.

Question 18

Children may have context-bound and referential words at the same time because:

A) context-bound words are easier to learn.
B) context-bound words are more difficult to learn.
C) they may have different experience with different referents that allow them to see one word in only one context and another word in varied contexts.
D) children cannot distinguish between context bound and referential terms.

Question 19

Words can be defined as:

A) symbols of thoughts, feelings and concepts that have typical meanings.
B) arbitrary symbols that stands for something.
C) symbols that are both arbitrary and references to things.
D) references to thoughts feeling and concepts.

Question 20

Research indicates that children use overextensions:

A) in the same way across languages.
B) differently at each developmental stage.
C) in the same way at each developmental stage.
D) infrequently and are usually not predictable.

Question 21

Some researchers use features to distinguish how children use language, including:

A) referential, or context-bound language users.
B) risk-takers and social language users.
C) referential and expressive, which refers to children who use object labels and personal or social words, respectively.
D) None of these answers are true.

Question 22

Children infer speakers' intentions from:

A) information about the environment.
B) clues in the speaker's gaze.
C) information from simple vocabulary.
D) environmental clues.

Question 23

When children develop a taxonomy of word meanings, they:

A) generally categorize words according to phonology.
B) generally assume that words relate to thematically related sets of things.
C) relate word meaning to functions thematically, according to age and developmental level.
D) categorize words according to similar themes across ages and cultures.

Question 24

Research indicates factors that influence individual differences in lexical development include:

A) the number of times the caregiver exposes the child to labels, provides context and the child's developmental level.
B) how the caregiver provides context to the child, the child's use of analytical skills, and the child's ability to take risks.
C) the social and developmental levels of the child.
D) the caregiver's skills in providing context to learn new words and the child's developmental level.

Question 25

Speech segmentation has been studied in relation to:

A) how caregivers use child-directed speech.
B) the child's articulation abilities.
C) phonological memory.
D) adult-directed speech.

Question 26

Research on individual differences in the rate of lexical development is important because it:

A) can be applied to designing school materials for reading instruction
B) supports understanding of the basic process that underlies vocabulary development in all children
C) All of these answers are true.
D) None of these answers are true.

Question 27

The taxonomic assumption is a principle in the study of the word learning process that:

A) relates to how children learn to categorize nominals.
B) illustrates how children learn new words in relation to words they have already used.
C) refers to how children classify words into categories and adjust their categories as they develop.
D) refers to how children map a new word onto a related referent.

Question 28

Fast-mapping refers to the process of:

A) applying knowledge of a referent to a word extension.
B) correctly inferring a referent, but needing to apply it to a number of extensions.
C) overextension.
D) underextension.

Question 29

Research on the differences in use of referential and expressive vocabularies indicates that the source of differences is based on:

A) individual differences in the children's development.
B) the language the caregivers provide.
C) whether the child learns analytically or holistically, on individual differences in children and on input that caregivers provide.
D) whether the child learns analytically or holistically.

Question 30

Research regarding solutions to the mapping problem suggests the word learning process relates to:

A) language-specific innate knowledge and sociopragmatic cues.
B) syntactic cues and social cognitive skills.
C) Syntactic bootstrapping.
D) All of these answers are true.

Question 31

____________________ was one of the early researchers on the use of syntax to acquire new vocabulary.

A) Lewis Carrol
B) Roger Brown
C) Letitia Nagles
D) Gelman & Taylor (1984)

Question 32

It appears that children attach labels to whole objects rather than their parts, e.g. when an adult says "cat" the child assumes that the word "cat" refers to the whole cat rather than the cat's tail or ears, etc. This principle is called:

A) whole to part learning
B) part to whole learning
C) whole object assumption
D) fast mapping

Question 33

Early research on the significance of the referential/expressive distinction indicates that

A) more advanced children acquire the referential style first.
B) more advanced children acquire the expressive style first.
C) the referential/expressive distinction can be made if children's vocabulary is held constant.
D) None of the statements are true.

Question 34

The two pragmatic principles to word learning, principles of conventionality and principles of contrast refer to:

A) ways that researchers study the referential use of language.
B) how children learn through comparisons and contrasts.
C) how children learn language by contrasting word meaning used in a variety of contexts.
D) the fact that members of a language community share the same use of meaning of words and those different words carry different meanings with them.

Question 35

Researchers propose that the referential/expressive difference in child vocabulary development is:

A) a result of the frequency with which mothers use particular sets of words.
B) a factor related to the child's cognitive ability.
C) a result of emphasis placed in the child's language on personal/social words.
D) related to the gender of the child.

Question 36

Gathercole and Baddeley (1989) showed vocabulary size might be related to:

A) family size
B) age of first word
C) articulation abilities
D) phonological memory

Question 37

Elements of the environment that increase vocabulary development include:

A) status as last-born.
B) amount of speech mother addresses to the child.
C) greater amount of one to one interactions with peers.
D) bilingualism.

Question 38

Research on children's exposure to language in their environment indicates that:

A) the effect of social economic status on children's language development is consistent throughout their development.
B) the amount of speech a child hears influences the rate of their vocabulary development.
C) birth order makes little difference in the rate of the child's growth in vocabulary knowledge.
D) education of the mother has minimal influence on the rate of the child's growth in vocabulary knowledge.

Question 39

The pragmatic principle of word learning proposes that when trying to make sense of new words they hear, children operate on the assumption that:

A) speakers are trying to communicate a new or different meaning when they use new or different words.
B) linguistic meaning is consistent.
C) every word has a different meaning.
D) the speaker will tell them what the word means.

Question 40

Samuelson and Smith (1998) argue that children:

A) have innate abilities to learn new words.
B) acquire new vocabulary by referring to one feature of the object.
C) focus on the newness of physical aspects of an object when they attach a label to it.
D) acquire new vocabulary according to social cognitive abilities.

Question 41

Research on phonological memory and world learning skills indicates that:

A) phonological memory is not related to acquiring a mental lexicon.
B) phonological memory is related to acquiring a growing mental lexicon. Children use phonological distinctions to categorize new words.
C) children do not use phonological distinctions to categorize new words.
D) None of these answers are true.

Question 42

Discuss the importance of the research questions and the research findings on word extension.

Question 43

Review the text in this chapter and identify support for the view that children's lexical development is guided by properties of speech they hear. Identify the researchers and provide citations for your discussion.

Question 44

Describe the speech segmentation problem and explain how it influences the process of word learning. Include a discussion of input and its influence on early language development.

Question 45

The concept of fast mapping concerns:

A) how a child organizes thoughts and language, a process called semantic organization.
B) how a child organizes lexical items.
C) the process in which children apply language input to their growing lexical knowledge.
D) All of these answers are true.

Question 46

Describe how concepts are related to word learning in early language development.

Question 47

Whether lexicalization is a language-specific process has been the subject of studies on:

A) exposing children to terms such as chromium and olive.
B) observing Spanish-speaking adults' use of novel verbs in videotaped lessons.
C) comparing how children describe motion in Korean and English languages.
D) All of these answers are true.

Question 48

Describe the content of children's first 50 words and discuss the relationship between the children's vocabulary development and cognition.

Question 49

Compare and contrast research on mapping problems. Describe why or why not the positions are valid.

Question 50

Explain how lexical principles, pragmatic principles and the general learning process influence early language development.

Question 51

Describe the research on how children acquire their first words. Include a discussion of evidence on referential word use.

Question 52

Children categorize new words according to object-substance distinctions:

A) similar to the way adults categorize.
B) according to the function of the object.
C) according to the appearance of the object.
D) in the same way regardless of age or developmental level.

Question 53

Describe two hypotheses about the underlying factors to the word spurt and compare them for adequacy of explanation.

Question 54

Discuss the difference between referential and expressive approaches to lexical acquisition and the effect that these two approaches have on children's development of lexicon.

Question 55

Research on the meanings of words and how they relate to concepts:

A) indicates that children learn words first and then apply them to concepts.
B) indicates that children learn concepts first and then apply words to them.
C) relies on the hypothesis that language and cognitive development are separate processes.
D) All of these answers are true.