Heuristics in learning classifiers: The acquisition of the classifier system and its implications for the nature of lexical acquisition

Japanese Psychological Research

Volumn 41, Issue 1, 1999, Pages 50-69

  Uchida, Nobuko ^a   Imai, Mutsumi ^b  

^a OCHANOMIZU UNIVERSITY   (Japan)

^b KEIO UNIVERSITY   (Japan)

Author keywords

Bottom up process; Japanese and Chinese children; Lexical acquisition; Semantic complexity; The prerequisites for extracting the meanings of classifiers

Indexed keywords

EID: 0033422179     PISSN: 00215368     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/1468-5884.00104     Document Type: Article

References (58)

1. Adams, K. L., & Conklin, N. F. (1973). Toward a theory of natural classification. Chicago Linguistic Society, 1-10.
2. Allan, K. (1979). Classifiers. Language, 53, 285-311.
3. Baldwin, D. A. (1992). Clarifying the role of shape in children's taxonomic assumption. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 54, 392-416.
4. Bowerman, M. (1996). Learning how to structure space for language: A crosslinguistic perspective. In P. Bloom, M. A. Peterson, L. Nadel & M. F. Garrett (Eds.), Language and space (pp. 385-436). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
5. Carey, S. (1982). Semantic development: The state of art. In E. Wannter & L. Greitman (Eds.), Language acquisition: The state of art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
6. Carey, S. (1997). Do constraints on word meanings reflect prelinguistic cognitive architecture? Cognitive Studies: Bulletin of the Japanese Cognitive Science Society, 4, 34-58.
7. Carey, S., & Bartlett, E. (1978). Acquiring a single new word. Papers and Reports on Child Language Development, 15, 17-29.
8. Carpenter, K. (1991). Later rather than sooner: Extralinguistic categories in the acquisition of Thai classifiers. Journal of Child Language, 18, 93-113.
9. Choi, S., & Bowerman, M. (1991). Learning to express motion events in English and Korean: The influence of language-specific lexicalization patterns. Cognition, 42, 83-121.
10. Clark, E. V. (1973). Nonlinguistic strategies and the acquisition of word meanings. Cognition, 2, 161-182.
11. Clark, E. V. (1987). The principle of contrast: A constraint on language acquisition. In B. MacWhinney (Ed.), Mechanisms of language acquisition: The 20th annual Carnegie symposium on cognition (pp. 1-33). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
12. Clark, E. V. (1997). Speaker perspective and reference in young children. First Language, 17, 57-74.
13. Clark, E. V., Carpenter, K. L., & Deutsch, W. (1995). Reference states and reversals: Undoing actions with verbs. Journal of Child Language, 22, 633-662.
14. Croft, W. (1990). Typology and universals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
15. Denny, P. (1979). Semantic analysis of selected Japanese classifiers for unit. Linguistics, 17, 317-335.
16. Downing, P. (1984). Japanese numerical classifiers: A semantic categorization. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
17. Fisher, C., Hall, D. G., & Gleitman, L. (1994). When it is better to receive than to give: Syntactic and conceptual constraints on vocabulary growth. Lingua, 92, 333-375.
18. Gathercole, V. (1985). "He has too much hard questions": Acquisition of the linguistic count-mass distinction much and many. Journal of Child Language, 12, 395-415.
19. Gentner, D. (1982). Why nouns are learned before verbs: Linguistic relativity versus natural partitioning. In S. A. Kuczaj (Ed.), Language development: Vol. 2. Language, thought, and culture (pp. 301-334). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
20. Gentner, D., & Imai, M. (1995). A further examination of the shape bias in early word learning. In E. V. Clark (Ed.), The proceedings of the 26th annual child language research forum (pp. 167-176). Stanford: Center for the Study of Language and Information Publications.
21. Gleitman, L. (1990) The structural sources of verb meanings. Language Acquisition, 1, 3-55.
22. Golinkoff, R. M., Shuff-Bailey, M., Olguin, R., & Ruan, W. (1995). Young children extend novel words at the basic level: Evidence for the principle of categorical scope. Developmental Psychology, 31, 494-507.
23. Haryu, E., & Imai, M. (1999). Controlling the application of the mutual exclusivity assumption in the acquisition of lexical hierarchies. Japanese Psychological Research, 41, 21-34.
24. Heibeck, T. H., & Markman, E. M. (1987). Word learning in children: An examination of fast mapping. Child Development, 58, 1021-1034.
25. Imai, M. (1994). Evolution of young children's theories of word meanings: The role of shape similarity in early acquisition. Unpublished doctoral dissertation submitted to Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.
26. Imai, M. (1997). Kotoba no gakushuu no paradokkusu [Paradox in word learning]. Tokyo: Kyoritsu. (In Japanese.)
27. Imai, M. (1999). Constraint on word-learning constraints. Japanese Psychological Research, 41, 5-20.
28. Imai, M., & Gentner, D. (1997). A crosslinguistic study of early word meaning: Universal ontology and linguistic influence. Cognition, 62, 169-200.
29. Imai, M., & Uchida, N. (1995). Examination of the taxonomic constraint and the shape bias in Japanese children. Poster presented at the biannual meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Indianapolis, IN.
30. Imai, M., Gentner, D., & Uchida, N. (1994). Children's theories of word meaning: The role of shape similarity in early acquisition. Cognitive Development, 9, 45-75.
31. Iwabuchi, E., & Muraishi, S. (1976). Youji no yogo [Word acquisition in young children]. Tokyo: Nihon Housou Shuppan Kyokai. (In Japanese.)
32. Keil, F. C. (1989). Concepts, kinds, and cognitive development. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
33. Lakoff, G. (1987). Woman, fire, dangerous things: What categories reveal about the mind. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
34. Landau, B., Smith, L. B., & Jones, S. S. (1988). The importance of shape in early lexical learning. Cognitive Development, 3, 299-321.
35. Levin, B., & Rappaport Hovav, M. (1994). A preliminary analysis of causative verbs in English. Lingua, 92, 35-77.
36. Malt, B. C. (1995). Category coherence in cross-cultural perspective. Cognitive Psychology, 29, 85-148.
37. Markman, E. M. (1989). Categorization and naming in children: Problems of induction. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
38. Markman, E. M. (1992). Constraints on word learning: Speculations about their nature origins and domain specificity. In M. R. Gunner & M. P. Marasts (Eds.), Modularity and constraints in language and cognition: The Minnesota symposium on child psychology (pp. 59-101). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
39. Markman, E. M. (1994). Constraints on word meaning in early language acquisition. Lingua, 92, 199-207.
40. Markman, E. M., & Hutchinson, J. E. (1984). Children's sensitivity to constraints on word meaning: Taxonomic vs. thematic relations. Cognitive Psychology, 16, 1-27.
41. Markman, E. M., & Wachtel, G. F. (1988). Children's use of mutual exclusivity to constrain the meaning of words. Cognitive Psychology, 20, 121-157.
42. Matsumoto, Y. (1987). Order of acquisition in the lexicon: Implications from Japanese numerical classifiers. In K. E. Nelson & A. van Kleek (Eds.), Children's language, Vol. 6 (pp. 229-260). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
43. Matsumoto, Y. (1993). Japanese numerical classifiers: A study of semantic categories and lexical organization. Linguistics, 31, 667-713.
44. Naka, M. (1999). The acquisition of Japanese numerical classifiers by 2-4-year-old children: The role of caretakers' linguistic inputs. Japanese Psychological Research, 41, 70-78.
45. Soja, N., Carey, S., & Spelke, E. (1991). Ontological categories guide young children's induction of word meaning: Object terms and substance terms. Cognition, 38, 179-211.
46. Talmy, L. (1985). Lexicalization patterns: Semantic structure in lexical forms. In T. Shopen (Ed.), Language typology and syntactic description: Vol. 3. Grammatical categories and the lexicon (pp. 57-149). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
47. Tomasello, M. (1997). The pragmatics of word learning. Bulletin of the Japanese Cognitive Science Society, 4, 59-74.
48. Uchida, N. (1982). How do young children produce stories? The Japanese Journal of Educational Psychology, 30, 211-222.
49. Uchida, N. (1985). Integration of causal sequences by preschool children. The Japanese Journal of Educational Psychology, 33, 124-134.
50. Uchida, N. (1996a). Japanese children's theory of word learning: The role of shape similarity in early acquisition. Studies in Arts and Culture, Ochanomizu University, 49, 131-156.
51. Uchida, N. (1996b). Kodomo no disukosu: Monogatarisannsyutu no kisokatei [Children's discourse: The cognitive processes of story production]. Tokyo: Kazama-syobo. (In Japanese.)
52. Uchida, N. (1997). A study on the acquisition of numerical classifiers among young children: The comparison of the acquisition process between Japanese and Chinese. Journal of Cultural Sciences: The Ritsumeikan Bungaku, 548, 77-114.
53. Uchida, N., & Imai, M. (1996). A study on the acquisition of numerical classifiers among young children: The development of human/ animal categories and generation of the rule of classifiers applying. The Japanese Journal of Educational Psychology, 44, 126-135.
54. Uchida, N., & Nagai, Y. (in preparation). A comparison of the acquisition process of numerical classifiers between Japanese and Chinese children.
55. Vygotsky, L. S. (1932/1962). Thought and language (E. Hanfmann & V. Gertrude, Trans.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (1932/1968). Shikou to gengo (Y. Shibata, Trans.). Tokyo: Meijitisyo.
56. Vygotsky, L. S. (1932/1962). Thought and language (E. Hanfmann & V. Gertrude, Trans.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (1932/1968). Shikou to gengo (Y. Shibata, Trans.). Tokyo: Meijitisyo.
57. Waxman, S. R. (1991). Convergences between semantic and conceptual organization in the preschool years. In J. P. Byrnes & S. A. Gelman (Eds.), Perspectives on language and cognition: Interrelations in development (pp. 107-145). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
58. Waxman, S. R., & Markow, D. B. (1995). Words as invitations to form categories: Evidence from 12- to 13-month-old infants Cognitive Psychology, 29, 257-302.