How Children Use Input to Acquire a Lexicon

TLDR

The study discusses the computational mechanisms suggested by prior findings. The authors evaluate how social and computational processes contribute to early lexical development and propose an integrated account. They reanalyzed and reviewed previous research, showing that social approaches alone are insufficient for word learning. The investigation found that data quantity, lexical richness, and syntactic complexity in mother‑child conversation support 2‑year‑olds’ vocabulary, while social aspects had no effect.

Abstract

The contributions of social processes and computational processes to early lexical development were evaluated. A re‐analysis and review of previous research cast doubt on the sufficiency of social approaches to word learning. An empirical investigation of the relation of social–pragmatic and data‐providing features of input to the productive vocabulary of sixty‐three 2‐year‐old children revealed benefits of data provided in mother–child conversation, but no effects of social aspects of those conversations. The findings further revealed that the properties of data that benefit lexical development in 2‐year‐olds are quantity, lexical richness, and syntactic complexity. The nature of the computational mechanisms implied by these findings is discussed. An integrated account of the roles of social and computational processes to lexical development is proposed.