Abstract
The development of children’s word knowledge is an important testing ground for the embodied account of word meaning, which proposes that word meanings are grounded in sensorimotor systems. Acquisition of abstract words, in particular, is a noted challenge for strong accounts of embodiment. We examined acquisition of abstract word meanings, using data on development of vocabulary knowledge from early school to University ages. We tested two specific proposals for how abstract words are learned: the affective embodiment account, that emotional experience is key to learning abstract word meanings, and the learning through language proposal, that abstract words are acquired through language experience. We found support for the affective embodiment account: word valence, interoception, and mouth action all facilitated abstract word acquisition more than concrete word acquisition. We tested the learning through language proposal by investigating whether words that appear in more diverse linguistic contexts are earlier acquired. Results showed that contextual diversity facilitated vocabulary acquisition, but did so for both abstract and concrete words. Our results provide evidence that emotion and sensorimotor systems are important to children’s acquisition of abstract words, but there is still considerable variance to be accounted for by other factors. We offer suggestions for future research to examine the acquisition of abstract vocabulary.
Highlights
The embodied account of word meaning proposes that children’s concepts emerge out of sensorimotor interactions (Glenberg and Gallese, 2012; Glenberg, 2015) and there is considerable evidence, for concrete concepts, that this is the case (Smith et al, 2007)
All variables were significantly correlated (p < 0.01) with the exception of head and mouth perceptual strength, which were not correlated with test-based age of acquisition (AoA), nor was mouth action strength correlated with valence (Table 1)
The affective embodiment account was tested by examining the relationship between word valence and word arousal with test-based AoA, and by testing whether these relationships varied for abstract and concrete words
Summary
The embodied account of word meaning proposes that children’s concepts emerge out of sensorimotor interactions (Glenberg and Gallese, 2012; Glenberg, 2015) and there is considerable evidence, for concrete concepts, that this is the case (Smith et al, 2007). If abstract word meanings are not experienced through the senses, how can children acquire them? In spite of the absence of a physical referent, children do learn the meanings of abstract words like love and help. According to a multimodal approach to word meaning, words can be learned in multiple ways, including sensory, motor, emotion, social, and linguistic information associated with the referent (Kousta et al, 2011; Borghi et al, 2019); providing several mechanisms by which abstract words might be acquired. The purpose of the present paper was to test these theoretical claims with a developmental approach, by examining the influence of different types of information on acquisition of abstract and concrete word meanings across childhood and into young adulthood.
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