Thoughts on the Intensional Basis of Early Object Word Extension: Evidence From Comprehension and Production

Abstract

Children begin to build what will eventually become an extensive and well- integrated lexicon by learning to comment on salient aspects of their environment. Although a few of children’s first words may refer to actions or states (e.g., up, off) or serve a social function (e.g., hi, night-night), the vast majority of the words that children first learn to use refer to important and/or interesting objects, such as people, animals, vehicles, toys, body parts, clothes, and household items (Anderson, 1978; Benedict, 1978, 1979; Clark, 1983; Nelson, 1973; Nice, 1915; Rescorla, 1980). Not surprisingly, then, many investigators have attempted to determine the manner in which young children learn object words (see Clark, 1983, for a discussion of this literature). Although there are many important aspects of this phenomenon (e.g., why do young children focus on objects in their environment rather than actions or states? What sorts of objects are young children most likely to learn to name?), this chapter will focus on only one aspect of object word meaning: the relation of children’s extension patterns in production and comprehension, and the implications of these extension patterns for our understanding of the nature of object word meaning in young children’s lexicons.