What's in a Name? A Study of How Children Learn Common and Proper Names

Abstract

KATZ, NANCY; BAKER, ERICA; and MACNAMARA, JOHN. What's in a Name? A Study of How Children Learn Common and Proper Names. CHmLD DEVELOPMENT, 1974, 45, 469-473. This paper studies the processes whereby small children (17-24 mo.) learn common and proper nouns and learn how English distinguishes between them. Our thesis is that within certain classes of objects (e.g., people), the children first discriminate individuals and then learn their names, whereas among other classes of objects (e.g., spoons) they do not discriminate individuals, and learn names only for the class. These two processes enable the children to learn the syntactic distinction between common and proper nouns. The thesis is supported by two sets of experimental data derived from a total of 80 children.