Three types of early word: the emergence of social words,names and cognitive-relational words in the one-word stage and their relation to cognitive development

Abstract

The early words that 27 children produced between the ages of 12 and 20 months were analysed. Social words, such as that used to point out objects or no used to refuse suggestions, were consistently among the first words to appear. A small number of names also appeared in the very early period. Cognitive-relational words, such as gone used to indicate disappearance or no used to indicate failure consistently appeared after some social words had been acquired. The cognitive development of 18 of these children was also recorded. Social words and names, though not cognitive-relational words, appeared before children solved 'early stage 6' cognitive problems. These results suggest that children move from using language communicatively to using it to sort out their cognitive problems early in the one-word stage and that this shift is related to 'stage 6' cognitive developments.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bates, E. , Bemgm, L. , Bretherton, I. , Camaioni, L. , & Volterra, V. (1979). The Emergence of Symbols Cognition-communication in Infancy (New York: Academic Press ).

Barrett, M. (1982) The holophrastic hypothesis: conceptual and empirical issues. Cognition, 11, 47-76.

_____ ( 1985) Early semantic representation and early word usage In S. Kuczaj & M. Barrett (eds), The Development of Word meaning (New York: Springer-Verlag).

Bloom, L. (1973). One Word at a Time. The Use of Single Word Utterances before Syntax (The Hague: Mouton ).

Bloom, L. , Lifter, K. & Broughton, J (1985). The convergence of early cognition and language in the second year of life: problems in conceptualization and measurement. In M Barrett (ed.), Children's Single-word Speech ( New York: Wiley).

Bower, T.G.R. (1982). Development in Infancy (2nd ed ) (San Francisco: Freeman ).

Bruner, J. (1975). From communication to language - a psychological perspective. Cognition, 3, 255-287.

_____ ( 1983) Child's Talk (New York: Norton)

Carter, A.L. (1975a) The transformation of sensorimotor morphemes into words: a case study of the development of 'more' and 'mine' Journal of Child Language, 2, 233-250

10.

_____ (1975b) The transformation of sensonmotor morphemes into words. Papers and Reports on Child Language Development, 11, 31-48

11.

_____ ( 1978). From sensonmotor vocalizations to words: a case study of the evolution of attention-directing communication in the second year In A. Lock (ed.), Action, Gesture, and Symbol: The Emergence of Language (pp. 309-349) (London: Academic Press).

12.

Corrigan, R. (1978). Language development as related to stage 6 object permanence development. Journal of Child Language, 5, 173-189.

13.

Clarke, E. (1979) The Ontogenesis of Meaning ( Wiesbaden: Athenaion)

14.

Dihoff, A. , & Chapman, R. (1977) First words: their origins in action Papers and Reports on Child Language Development, 13, 1-7

15.

Dore, J. (1975). Holophrases, speech acts and language universals . Journal of Child Language, 2, 21-40.

16.

_____ ( 1985) Holophrases revisited. their 'logical' development from dialog. In M. Barrett (ed.), Children's Single-word Speech (New York: Wiley)

17.

Goldfield, B. (1985). Referential and expressive language. First Language, 6, 119-131.

18.

Gopmk, A. (1981). Development of non-nominal expressions in 1- to 2-year-olds. In P Dale & D. Ingram (eds), Child Language. An International Perspective (Baltimore. Umversity Park Press).

19.

_____ (1982). Words and plans: early language and the development of intelligent action. Journal of Child Language, 9, 303-318

20.

_____ (1984). The acquisition of 'gone' and the development of the object concept Journal of Child Language, 11, 273-292.

21.

Gopnik, A. & Meltzoff, A.N. (1984) Semantic and cognitive development in 15- to 21-month-old children. Journal of Child Language , 11, 495-513.

22.

_____ (1985a) From people to plans to objects: changes in the meaning of early words and their relation to cognitive development Journal of Pragmatics, 9, 495-512

23.

_____ ( 1985b). Words, plans, things and locations: interactions between semantic and cognitive development in the one-word stage. In S. Kuczaj & M Barrett (eds), The Development of Word Meaning ( New York. Spnnger-Verlag)

24.

_____ ( 1987a). Language and thought in the young child: early semantic developments and their relationship to object permanence, means-ends understanding and categorization. In K. Nelson & A. Van Kleeck (eds), Children's Language, Vol. 6 (Hillsdale, N J : Erlbaum).

25.

_____ (1987b) The development of categorization in the second year and its relation to other cognitive and linguistic developments. Child Development, 58, 1523-1531.

26.

Greenfield, P.M. & Smith, J H. (1976). The Structure of Communication in Early Language Development (New York Academic Press)

27.

Kuczaj, S.A. , II (1982) Young children's overextension of object words in comprehension and/or production: support for a prototype theory of early word meaning First Language, 3, 93,105.

28.

Lifter, K. & Bloom, L. (1985) Development of object related behaviours during the transition from prelinguistic to linguistic communication. Paper presented at the Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development.

29.

Lock, A. (1980) The Guided Reinvention of Language ( London: Academic Press)

30.

McCune -Nicolich, L. (1981) The cognitive bases of relational words in the single word period. Journal of Child Language, 8, 15-34.

31.

McNeill, D. & McNeill, N. (1968) What does a child mean when he says 'no'? In E. M Zale (ed ), Language and Language Behavior (New York: Appleton Century Crofts).

32.

Morehead, D. & Morehead, A. (1974) From signal to sign a Piagetian view of thought and language during the first two years. In R L. Scheifelbusch & L. L. Lloyd (eds), Language Perspectives Acquisition, Retardation and Intervention (Baltimore: University Park Press ).

33.

Nelson, K. (1973) Structure and Strategy in Learning to Talk. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 38 (1-2), 1-135.

34.

_____ (1974) Concept, word and sentence: interrelations in acquisition and development. Psychological Review, 81, 267-285.

35.

_____ (1975) The nominal shift in semantic-syntactic development Cognitive Psychology, 7, 461-479.

36.

_____ (1981) Individual differences in language development: implications for development and language Developmental Psychology , 17, 170-187.

37.

Nelson, K. & Lucariello, J. (1985). The development of meaning in first words In M Barrett (ed ), Children's Single-word Speech ( New York: Wiley).

38.

Pea, R.D. (1980) The development of negation in early child language . In D. R. Olson (ed.), The Social Foundations of Language and Thought. (pp. 156-186) ( New York: Norton).

39.

Piaget, J. (1954) The Construction of Reality in the Child (New York: Basic Books).

40.

_____ ( 1962) Play, Dreams and Imitation in Childhood ( New York: Norton).

41.

Sinclair, H. (1970) The transition from sensory-motor behaviour to symbolic activity. Interchange, 1, 119-126.

42.

Slobin, D. (1982). Universal and particular in the acquisition of language. In E. Wanner & L. Gleitman (eds), Language Acquisition: The State of the Art (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

43.

Tomasello, M. & Todd, J. (1983). Joint attention and lexical acquisition style First Language, 4, 197-212.

44.

Tomasello, M. & Farrar, J. (1984). Cognitive bases of lexical development: object permanence and relational words Journal of Child Language , 11, 477-493

45.

_____ (1986). Object permanence and relational words: a lexical training study Journal of Child Language, 13, 495-573.

46.

Trevarthen, C. & Hubley, P. (1978) Secondary intersubjectivity. In A. Lock (ed.), Action, Gesture and Symbol The Emergence of Language (New York: Academic Press).

47.

Uzgiris, I. & Hunt, J M V. (1975) Assessment in Infancy Ordinal Scales of Psychological Development (Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press).