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Novel Noun and Verb Learning in Chinese‐, English‐, and Japanese‐Speaking Children
Author(s) -
Imai Mutsumi,
Li Lianjing,
Haryu Etsuko,
Okada Hiroyuki,
HirshPasek Kathy,
Golinkoff Roberta Michnick,
Shigematsu Jun
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2008.01171.x
Subject(s) - linguistics , verb , psychology , noun , grammatical category , language acquisition , cognition , modal verb , philosophy , neuroscience
When can children speaking Japanese, English, or Chinese map and extend novel nouns and verbs? Across 6 studies, 3‐ and 5‐year‐old children in all 3 languages map and extend novel nouns more readily than novel verbs. This finding prevails even in languages like Chinese and Japanese that are assumed to be verb‐friendly languages (e.g., T. Tardif, 1996). The results also suggest that the input language uniquely shapes verb learning such that English‐speaking children require grammatical support to learn verbs, whereas Chinese children require pragmatic as well as grammatical support. This research bears on how universally shared cognitive factors and language‐specific linguistic factors interact in lexical development.