Getting Specific: Early General Mechanisms Give Rise to Domain-Specific Expertise in Word Learning

Abstract

This paper evaluates the proposal that general associative mechanisms underlie the earliest stages of word learning but that these same general mechanisms, operating over language input, enable children to identify domain-specific cues that ultimately help to constrain word learning, rendering children more sophisticated language users. As a result, word learning starts out general but becomes largely a domain-specific ability over the course of the second year.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This paper was prepared with support from Award number 1R03HD058777 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The views presented do not necessarily represent the official views of the NICHD. Many thanks are due to Umay Suanda and two anonymous reviewers for comments and suggestions.