Naming and Exclaiming: Infants' Sensitivity to Naming Contexts

This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution , reselling , loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. In three experiments, we examined 17-month-olds' acquisition of novel symbols (words and gestures) as names for object categories. Experiment 1 compares infants' extension of novel symbols when they are presented within a familiar naming phrase (e.g., " Look at this [symbol]! ") versus presented alone (e.g., " Look! … [symbol]! ") Infants mapped novel gestures successfully in both naming contexts. However, infants mapped novel words only within the context of familiar naming phrases. Thus, although infants can learn both words and gestures, they have divergent expectations about the circumstances under which the 2 symbolic forms name objects. Experiments 2 and 3 test the hypothesis that infants' expectations about the circumstances under which words that name objects are acquired by monitoring how adults indicate their intention to name. By employing a training paradigm, these two experiments demonstrated that infants can infer how an experimenter signals his or her intention to name an object on the basis of a very brief training experience. Infants possess a powerful, early ability to learn names for objects. By as early as 12 months of age, they successfully map novel words to objects and object categories Fitzsimmons, 1994). Infants use a variety of cues to determine the meaning of a novel utterance including social referential cues (e.g., pointing and eye gaze), pros-ody, and sentence structure This sensitivity to various cues available in the speech environment appears to facilitate the early acquisition of object names. Infants also engage actively in spontaneous naming routines in which they (repeatedly) request and provide names for objects (Brown, 1956). Thus, during the first several months of word learning, object naming becomes a very familiar and highly ritualized activity for infants. A recent series of studies by …