Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T05:37:47.613Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Early lexical development: comprehension and production*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Helen Benedict
Helen Benedict
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Lists of the first 50 words comprehended and produced by eight infants between 0; 9 and 1; 8 were compared. Comprehension development began earlier (around 0; 9) and reached the 50-word level (age 1; 1) earlier than production development (ages 1; 0 and 1; 6 respectively) and rate of word acquisition for comprehension was twice that of production, confirming the hypothesis that comprehension precedes production for lexical development. Word-class analysis revealed differences in the proportion and type of action words in comprehension and production vocabularies. It is suggested that action is central to lexical development but is expressed differently in comprehension, where action words are used to initiate actions, and production, where non-action words accompany the child's actions.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , June 1979 , pp. 183 - 200
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bayley, N. (1969). Bayley scales of infant development. New York: Psychological Corporation.Google Scholar
Blank, M. (1974). Cognitive functions of language in the preschool years. DevPsychol 10. 229–45.Google Scholar
Bloom, L. (1973). One word at a time: the use of single word utterances before syntax. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Bloom, L. (1974). Talking, understanding, and thinking. In Schiefelbusch, R. L. & Lloyd, L. L. (eds), Language perspectives – acquisition, retardation, and intervention. Baltimore: University Park Press.Google Scholar
Bruner, J. S. (1975). The ontogenesis of speech acts. JChLang 2. 1–19.Google Scholar
Gleitman, L. R., Gleitman, H. & Shipley, E. (1972). The emergence of the child as grammarian. Cognition 1. 137–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, S., Seligman, M. E. P. & Gelman, R. (1976). Language in the two year old. Cognition 4. 189–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenfield, P. M. & Smith, J. H. (1976). The structure of communication in early language development. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Guillaume, P. (1970). The emergence of the sentence. In Blumenthal, A. L. (ed.), Language and psychology: historical aspect of psycholinguistics. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Huttenlocher, J. (1974). The origins of language comprehension. In Solso, R. L. (ed.), Theories in cognitive psychology. New York: Earlbaum.Google Scholar
Lenneberg, E. H. (1967). Biological foundations of language. New York: Wiley.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leopold, W. (1948). Semantic learning in infant language. Word 4. 173–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyamina, G. M. (1966). [Development of speech comprehension in children in the second year of life] Voprosy psikhol 3 (1960), 106–21.Google Scholar
(Slobin, D. I. Abstracts of soviet studies of child language. In Smith, F. & Miller, G. A. (eds), The genesis of language. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T.)Google Scholar
MacNamara, J. (1972). The cognitive basis of language learning in infants. PsychRev 70. 1–13.Google Scholar
Mallitskaya, M. K. (1966). [A method for using pictures to develop speech comprehension in children at the end of the first and in the second year of life] Voprosy psikhol 3 (1960), 122–6.Google Scholar
(Slobin, D. I. Abstracts of soviet studies of child language. In Smith, F. & Miller, G. A. (eds), The genesis of language. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T.)Google Scholar
McCarthy, D. (1954). Language development in children. In Carmichael, L. (ed.), Manual of child, psychology (2nd edn). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
McNeill, D. (1966). Developmental psycholinguistics. In Smith, F. & Miller, G. A. (eds), The genesis of language. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T.Google Scholar
McNeill, D. (1970). The acquisition of language. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Nelson, K. (1973). Structure and strategy in learning to talk. MonogrSocResChDevel. 38, (1–2), No. 149.Google Scholar
Piaget, J. (1962). Play dreams and imitation. (Trans. Gattegno, C. & Hodgson, F. M..) New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Rescorla, L. (1975). Concept formation in word learning. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Yale University.Google Scholar
Rodgon, M. M., Jankowski, W. & Alenskas, L. (1977). A multi-functional approach to single word usage. JChLang 4. 23–44.Google Scholar
Schank, R. C. (1972). Conceptual dependency: a theory of natural language understanding. CogPsychol 3, 522–631.Google Scholar