Noun Bias Research Articles

The size and composition of the productive holophrastic lexicon: German–Italian bilingual acquisition vs. Italian monolingual acquisition

In the present study, the natural and simultaneous first language acquisition of a German–Italian bilingual boy and an Italian monolingual girl from 1;8 to 2;1 are analyzed and compared. The investigation focuses on the rate of acquisition and the size and composition of the productive lexicons. At the end of the observation period, the bilingual boy has acquired twice as many words as the monolingual child. The rate of acquisition of both children markedly increases (vocabulary spurt) after their lexicons have reached the size of 50 words. The data reveal a noun preference (noun bias) in the lexicons of the bilingual and the monolingual child. The comparison of the Italian lexicons of the bilingual child and of the monolingual child do not show striking differences regarding word categories. In both lexicons, common nouns, proper nouns, and onomatopoeic words are the most important word categories, whereas verbs play a marginal role.

Predicting two Mandarin-English bilingual children’s first 50 words: Effects of frequency and relative exposure in the input

This study tested two hypotheses that relate children’s early words to the input: (1) the language of bilingual children’s first words is correlated with their exposure time to each language and (2) children are more likely to acquire words from the first and/or last position in utterances. We tested these hypotheses with spontaneous language use in the families of two Mandarin—English bilingual children, followed longitudinally every three months from 6 months to 18 months. The results showed that the exposure time was a good but not perfect predictor of the language of the children’s first 50 words. Also, both children learned more nouns in both languages than appeared in first or last position of their caregivers’ utterances. We discuss these results in terms of support for a noun bias in children’s minds and highlight the need for future research to take into account socio-cultural variables.

Joint attention and word learning in Ngas-speaking toddlers in Nigeria

This study examines infants' joint attention behavior and language development in a rural village in Nigeria. Participants included eight younger (1 ;0 to 1 ;5, M age = 1 ;2) and eight older toddlers (1 ;7 to 2;7, M age= 2;1). Joint attention behaviors in social interaction contexts were recorded and coded at two time points six months apart. Analyses revealed that these toddlers were producing more high-level joint attention behaviors than less complex behaviors. In addition, the quality and quantity of behaviors produced by these Nigerian children was similar to those found in other cultures. In analyses of children's noun and verb comprehension and production (in relation to the number of nouns or verbs on a parental checklist), parents reported proportionally more verbs than nouns, perhaps because Ngas has some linguistic characteristics that are similar to languages in which a noun bias is not seen (e.g. Mandarin Chinese). An examination of the interrelations of joint attention and language development revealed that joint attention behaviors were related to both noun and verb development at different times. The set of results is important for understanding the emergence of joint attention in traditional cultures, the comprehension and production of nouns and verbs given the specific linguistic properties of a language, and the importance that early social contexts may have for language development.

Processes of Language Acquisition in Children With Autism: Evidence from Preferential Looking

Two language acquisition processes (comprehension preceding production of word order, the noun bias) were examined in 2- and 3-year-old children (n=10) with autistic spectrum disorder and in typically developing 21-month-olds (n=13). Intermodal preferential looking was used to assess comprehension of subject-verb-object word order and the tendency to map novel words onto objects rather than actions. Spontaneous speech samples were also collected. Results demonstrated significant comprehension of word order in both groups well before production. Moreover, children in both groups consistently showed the noun bias. Comprehension preceding production and the noun bias appear to be robust processes of language acquisition, observable in both typical and language-impaired populations.

Putting the “Noun Bias” in Context: A Comparison of English and Mandarin

Recently, researchers have been debating whether children exhibit a universal “noun bias” when learning a first language. The present study compares the proportions of nouns and verbs in the early vocabularies of 24 English‐ and 24 Mandarin‐speaking toddlers (M age = 20 months) and their mothers. Three different methods were used to measure the proportion of noun types, relative to verb types: controlled observations in three contexts (book reading, mechanical toy play, regular toy play), identical across languages; a vocabulary checklist (MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory); and mothers' reporting of their children's “first words.” Across all measures, Mandarin‐speaking children were found to have relatively fewer nouns and more verbs than English‐speaking children. However, context itself played an important role in the proportions of nouns found in children's vocabularies, such that, regardless of the language spoken, children's vocabularies appeared dominated by nouns when they were engaged in book reading, but not when they were playing with toys. Mothers' speech to children showed the same language differences (relatively more verbs in Mandarin), although both Mandarin‐ and English‐speaking mothers produced relatively more verbs than their children. In sum, whether or not language‐learning toddlers demonstrate a “noun bias” depends on a variety of factors, including the methods by which their vocabularies are sampled and the contexts in which observations occur.

The words children learn: Evidence against a noun bias in early vocabularies

The focus of this study of early word learning was on the status of object words in early vocabularies because of the considerable emphasis given to nouns or object names in both traditional part-of-speech analyses and more recent theory and research on lexical principles. Fourteen children were followed from 9 months to 2 years of age, and monthly vocabulary growth was analyzed with the children equated for both onset and achievement in word learning. The main result was that object words represented approximately one third, on average, of the different words the children learned. Nouns could be considered the largest part of speech in their vocabularies only if other part-of-speech category assignments are valid or even possible—neither of which is the case for presyntactic vocabularies. Object-specific lexical principles cannot explain word learning, if most of the words a child learns are other than names for objects. More general principles are needed, such as the Principle of Relevance offered here, for determining how a presyntactic child learns any kind of word.

Noun bias in maternal speech to one-year-olds.

This study examines the distribution of nouns and verbs in maternal speech to one-year-olds. Mothers and children were videotaped during toy play and non-toy play. Nouns and verbs in maternal speech were coded for frequency, sentence position and occurrence with grammatical inflections. Maternal speech was also coded for utterances that prompted the child to produce a noun or a verb. Frequency of nouns and verbs varied with context. There were more noun types and tokens during toy play, and more verb types and tokens during non-toy play. Nouns occurred more often than verbs in shorter maternal sentences, in sentence-final position, and with fewer grammatical inflections. Mothers also more often prompted their children to produce nouns. There was a significant positive correlation between frequency of noun types and tokens during toy play, and the proportion of nouns in children's first 50 words.

Nouns in early lexicons: evidence, explanations and implications.

Many theories of grammatical and lexical acquisition assume that children learn predominantly nouns, and specifically names of objects, when they first begin to acquire words in the second year. We show that the noun bias in early vocabularies is far from universal, and that it rests only in part on the acquisition of object names. An analysis of vocabulary composition from 45 children at 1;8 indicates that more nouns are acquired than all other word classes, but that of the nouns acquired only about half are the names of basic level object classes (BLOCs). An examination of the use of nouns in mother-child discourse shows that non-object words referencing locations, actions and events, for example, are used in distinctive pragmatic and grammatical contexts which might enable a child to grasp the word's use and eventually its meaning. It is concluded that a theory of lexical acquisition in discourse context is required to explain word learning at all levels and for all word types. Implications for semantic bootstrapping theories are considered.