Year: 2001
Type: article
Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between shape complexity and familiarity in extending novel adjectives. Previous research has suggested that familiarity with an object's basic level label determines the likelihood that a novel adjective will be extended to new instances. The present results do not support that conclusion. Instead the results suggest that given an adjectival syntactic frame children are likely to extend novel words to other objects of the same material when the objects are simple in shape. This result suggests that the perceptual properties of objects and the lexical form class cues are integral to understanding how children come to learn new words.
Authors: Catherine M. Sandhofer, Linda B. Smith
Institution: Indiana University
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2622024090