How children learn the meanings of words / Paul Bloom.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bloom, Paul, 1963-

Series:

Learning, development, and conceptual change

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Language acquisition.

Semantics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (315 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : MIT Press, c2000.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Annotation How do children learn that the word "dog" refers not to all four-legged animals, and not just to Ralph, but to all members of a particular species? How do they learn the meanings of verbs like "think," adjectives like "good," and words for abstract entities such as "mortgage" and "story"? The acquisition of word meaning is one of the fundamental issues in the study of mind. According to Paul Bloom, children learn words through sophisticated cognitive abilities that exist for other purposes. These include the ability to infer others' intentions, the ability to acquire concepts, an appreciation of syntactic structure, and certain general learning and memory abilities. Although other researchers have associated word learning with some of these capacities, Bloom is the first to show how a complete explanation requires all of them. The acquisition of even simple nouns requires rich conceptual, social, and linguistic capacities interacting in complex ways. This book requires no background in psychology or linguistics and is written in a clear, engaging style. Topics include the effects of language on spatial reasoning, the origin of essentialist beliefs, and the young child's understanding of representational art. The book should appeal to general readers interested in language and cognition as well as to researchers in the field.

Contents:

Contents; Series Foreword; Acknowledgments; Chapter 1 First Words; Chapter 2 Fast Mapping and the Course of Word Learning; Chapter 3 Word Learning and Theory of Mind; Chapter 4 Object Names and Other Common Nouns; Chapter 5 Pronouns and Proper Names; Chapter 6 Concepts and Categories; Chapter 7 Naming Representations; Chapter 8 Learning Words through Linguistic Context; Chapter 9 Number Words; Chapter 10 Words and Concepts; Chapter 11 Final Words; References; Author Index; Subject Index

Notes:

"A Bradford book."

Originally published: 2000.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [267]-290) and indexes.

OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.

ISBN:

9786612099779

9780262523295

0262523299

9781282099777

1282099779

9780262268783

0262268787

9780585230511

058523051X

OCLC:

860467696

Publisher Number:

2027/heb08415 hdl