Infant single words for dynamic events predict early verb meanings

Abstract

Abstract Do children’s single words related to motion and change also encode aspects of environmental events highlighted by Talmy’s motion event analysis? If so, these meanings may predict children’s early verb meanings. Analyzing the kinds of meanings expressed in single “dynamic event words” through motion event semantics yields links between early true verbs in sentences and the semantics encoded in these single words. Dynamic event words (e.g., more, allgone, out, down) reflect the sense of temporal and spatial reversibility established in the late sensorimotor period. We propose that these dynamic meanings provide the semantic foundation for the most common verbs included in early sentences, and thus a bootstrap to full development of the verb repertoire. In this study, we followed the spoken language development (from single words to sentences) of five children. We identified dynamic event words as encoding dynamic change in the following dimensions: (1) spatial direction in relation to self; (2) vertical spatial direction; (3) figure/ground relationships; and (4) temporal event sequences. Verbs continuing the semantics previously identified in dynamic event words occurred early and dominated the verb repertoire through 24 months of age.