Learning language from within: Children use semantic generalizations to infer word meanings

One reason that word learning presents a challenge for children is because pairings between word forms and meanings are arbitrary conventions that children must learn via observation – e.g., the fact that “shovel” labels shovels. The present studies explore cases in which children might bypass observational learning and spontaneously infer new word meanings: By exploiting the fact that many words are flexible and systematically encode multiple, related meanings. For example, words like shovel and hammer are nouns for instruments, and verbs for activities involving those instruments. The present studies explored whether 3- to 5-year-old children possess semantic generalizations about lexical flexibility, and can use these generalizations to infer new word meanings: Upon learning that dax labels an activity involving an instrument, do children spontaneously infer that dax can also label the instrument itself? Across four studies, we show that at least by age four, children spontaneously generalize instrument activity flexibility to new words. Together, our findings point to a powerful way in which children may build their vocabulary, by leveraging the fact that words are linked to multiple meanings in systematic ways.

儿童在词汇学习方面所面临的挑战之一，在于词汇形式与意义之间的配对是一种任意的惯例，儿童必须通过观察来学习这些配对——例如，'shovel' 一词标记了铲子这一事实。本研究探讨了儿童可能绕过观察学习，并自发推断新词意义的情况：通过利用许多词汇具有灵活性并系统性地编码多个相关意义的事实。例如，'shovel' 和 'hammer' 等词汇既是工具的名词，也是涉及这些工具的活动动词。本研究旨在探究3至5岁的儿童是否拥有关于词汇灵活性的语义概括能力，并能够利用这些概括来推断新词意义：当儿童了解到 'dax' 一词标记了涉及工具的活动时，他们是否会自发推断 'dax' 也可用来标记该工具本身？在四项研究中，我们展示了至少到四岁，儿童会自发地将工具活动灵活性推广到新词。综合我们的发现，指向了儿童可能通过利用词汇与多个意义之间的系统性联系来构建其词汇库的一种强大方式。