The Development of Word Meaning

1 How Children Learn the Reference of Concrete Nouns: A Critique of Current Hypotheses.- The Original Hypotheses of Clark and Nelson.- Subsequent Developments.- Revisions and Extensions.- Conclusions and Some Suggestions for Future Research.- 2 Early Semantic Representations and Early Word-Usage.- The Principal Phenomena Characterizing Early Word-Usage.- The Development of Semantic Representations: A Summary of the Proposed Model.- Conclusions.- 3 Constraints on the Representation of Word Meaning: Evidence From Autistic and Mentally Retarded Children.- The Study.- Results.- Discussion.- 4 Semantic and Conceptual Knowledge Underlying the Child's Words.- Extensional Studies.- Interview Studies.- Conclusion.- 5 Thoughts on the Intensional Basis of Early Object Word Extension: Evidence From Comprehension and Production.- Object Word Meaning.- Children's Extension Errors.- The Comprehension/Production Issue.- The Notion of Prototypes and Its Implications for the Comprehension/Production Issue.- Conclusions and Speculations.- An Unembarrassed Return to the Notion of Prototype-Based Word Meaning.- 6 Lexical Acquisition Strategies in the Preschool Child.- What's in a Word?.- Data Bases and Strategies.- The Input.- Experimental Evidence.- Conclusion.- 7 Apprenticeship in Word Use: Social Convergence Processes in Learning Categorically Related Nouns.- The Vygotsky-Wittgenstein Legacy.- Some Clarifications and Implications.- The Framework Applied to Maternal Labeling Research.- Factors Affecting Parent-Child Reference Patterns.- An Illustrative Study.- Conclusion.- 8 Words, Plans, Things, and Locations: Interactions Between Semantic and Cognitive Development in the One-Word Stage.- Meaning in the One-Word Stage.- Words About Things.- Words About Plans.- Words About Locations.- Other Early Words and Meanings.- Changes in the Meanings of Early Words.- Summary.- Conceptual Development and Early Meaning.- Theories of Semantic Development in the One-Word Stage.- An Alternative Hypothesis.- 9 Actions and Things: What Adults Talk About to 1-Year-Olds.- Speech Input Characteristics.- What Is the Topic of Conversation: Action or Object?.- Mother Speech Styles.- Conversational Demands and Child-Directed Speech.- Descriptive Comments About Objects and Actions.- Directing Visual Attention.- Directing Actions.- Promoting Verbal Responses.- Conclusion.- 10 Action Words and Pragmatic Function in Early Language.- Action Words: Classes and Contexts.- Data: Actions and State Changes.- The Pragmatics of Early Action Words.- Mental Process Verbs.- Conclusions.- 11 Verbs and Time.- Cutting Up Verbs.- Time Talk.- The Category Verb.- Conclusion.- 12 Acquiring and Using Words to Express Logical Relationships.- Selective Review of the Literature Concerning Children's Understanding of the Terms Before, After, Because, So, If, But, and Or.- Production and Comprehension Measures.- Content as a Context for Comprehending Relational Terms.- Conclusions.- Summary.- Author Index.