The acquisition of word-meaning for dimensional adjectives: the long and short of it
- 1 May 1974
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Journal of Child Language
- Vol. 1 (2) , 195-204
- https://doi.org/10.1017/s0305000900000647
Abstract
Two experiments tested the semantic feature hypothesis with children younger than those previously studied. Two predictions were considered: (1) that order of acquisition of dimensional adjective pairs corresponds with their order of semantic generality; (2) that at an early stage of development, the marked members of dimensional pairs are interpreted as having the meaning of the unmarked members. In general, both experiments supported prediction one but failed to support prediction two. In Experiment II, a possible confounding variable (non-semantic size preference) was examined. Two general conclusions were reached: (1) that it is difficult to rule out semantically irrelevant factors (size preference) from experiments investigating the learning of dimensional adjectives; and (2) that refinements of the semantic feature theory may be necessary to accommodate individual differences (which may be age dependent) in strategies for learning dimensional adjectives.Keywords
This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit:
- On the acquisition of the meaning of before and afterJournal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 1971