Quantifying Iconicity’s Contribution during Language Acquisition: Implications for Vocabulary Learning
Previous research found that iconicity—the motivated correspondence between word form and meaning—contributes to expressive vocabulary acquisition. We present two new experiments with two different databases and with novel analyses to give a detailed quantification of how iconicity contributes to vo...
Main Authors: | , |
---|---|
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2017-03-01
|
Series: | Frontiers in Communication |
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fcomm.2017.00004/full |
id |
doaj-9c000bde240b4818b2fd14f01e507087 |
---|---|
record_format |
Article |
spelling |
doaj-9c000bde240b4818b2fd14f01e5070872020-11-25T03:22:51ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Communication2297-900X2017-03-01210.3389/fcomm.2017.00004225241Quantifying Iconicity’s Contribution during Language Acquisition: Implications for Vocabulary LearningDominic W. Massaro0Marcus Perlman1Department of Psychology, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USALanguage and Cognition Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, NetherlandsPrevious research found that iconicity—the motivated correspondence between word form and meaning—contributes to expressive vocabulary acquisition. We present two new experiments with two different databases and with novel analyses to give a detailed quantification of how iconicity contributes to vocabulary acquisition across development, including both receptive understanding and production. The results demonstrate that iconicity is more prevalent early in acquisition and diminishes with increasing age and with increasing vocabulary. In the first experiment, we found that the influence of iconicity on children’s production vocabulary decreased gradually with increasing age. These effects were independent of the observed influence of concreteness, difficulty of articulation, and parental input frequency. Importantly, we substantiated the independence of iconicity, concreteness, and systematicity—a statistical regularity between sounds and meanings. In the second experiment, we found that the average iconicity of both a child’s receptive vocabulary and expressive vocabulary diminished dramatically with increases in vocabulary size. These results indicate that iconic words tend to be learned early in the acquisition of both receptive vocabulary and expressive vocabulary. We recommend that iconicity be included as one of the many different influences on a child’s early vocabulary acquisition.http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fcomm.2017.00004/fullvocabulary acquisitionspeech difficultyiconicity in speechage of acquisitionparental input frequencychild-directed speech |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Dominic W. Massaro Marcus Perlman |
spellingShingle |
Dominic W. Massaro Marcus Perlman Quantifying Iconicity’s Contribution during Language Acquisition: Implications for Vocabulary Learning Frontiers in Communication vocabulary acquisition speech difficulty iconicity in speech age of acquisition parental input frequency child-directed speech |
author_facet |
Dominic W. Massaro Marcus Perlman |
author_sort |
Dominic W. Massaro |
title |
Quantifying Iconicity’s Contribution during Language Acquisition: Implications for Vocabulary Learning |
title_short |
Quantifying Iconicity’s Contribution during Language Acquisition: Implications for Vocabulary Learning |
title_full |
Quantifying Iconicity’s Contribution during Language Acquisition: Implications for Vocabulary Learning |
title_fullStr |
Quantifying Iconicity’s Contribution during Language Acquisition: Implications for Vocabulary Learning |
title_full_unstemmed |
Quantifying Iconicity’s Contribution during Language Acquisition: Implications for Vocabulary Learning |
title_sort |
quantifying iconicity’s contribution during language acquisition: implications for vocabulary learning |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
series |
Frontiers in Communication |
issn |
2297-900X |
publishDate |
2017-03-01 |
description |
Previous research found that iconicity—the motivated correspondence between word form and meaning—contributes to expressive vocabulary acquisition. We present two new experiments with two different databases and with novel analyses to give a detailed quantification of how iconicity contributes to vocabulary acquisition across development, including both receptive understanding and production. The results demonstrate that iconicity is more prevalent early in acquisition and diminishes with increasing age and with increasing vocabulary. In the first experiment, we found that the influence of iconicity on children’s production vocabulary decreased gradually with increasing age. These effects were independent of the observed influence of concreteness, difficulty of articulation, and parental input frequency. Importantly, we substantiated the independence of iconicity, concreteness, and systematicity—a statistical regularity between sounds and meanings. In the second experiment, we found that the average iconicity of both a child’s receptive vocabulary and expressive vocabulary diminished dramatically with increases in vocabulary size. These results indicate that iconic words tend to be learned early in the acquisition of both receptive vocabulary and expressive vocabulary. We recommend that iconicity be included as one of the many different influences on a child’s early vocabulary acquisition. |
topic |
vocabulary acquisition speech difficulty iconicity in speech age of acquisition parental input frequency child-directed speech |
url |
http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fcomm.2017.00004/full |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT dominicwmassaro quantifyingiconicityscontributionduringlanguageacquisitionimplicationsforvocabularylearning AT marcusperlman quantifyingiconicityscontributionduringlanguageacquisitionimplicationsforvocabularylearning |
_version_ |
1724609154762407936 |