The Effects of Linguistic Contrast and Conceptual Hierarchy on Children's Word Learning

언어대비(言語對比)와 개념(槪念)의 위계성(位階性)이 아동의 단어학습에 미치는 효과

The purpose of this study was (1) to investigate whether linguistic contrast helps children map a new word into a specific semantic domain when a new word is introduced, (2) to examine the existence of a hierarchy of domains into which children will place a new word, (3) to examine whether children's existing lexicons affect how children map a new word. A total of 320 children from 3 to 6 years of age were drawn from Pusan, Korea. The children were divided into one of four age groups. There were 80 children in each age group. In each group, children were randomly assigned to one of four groups; the linguistic contrast group exposed to color, the linguistic contrast group exposed to shape, a label group and control group. All of the children were tested for production and comprehension of the new word. The results of this study were as follows; (1) The linguistic contrast helped children learn the meanings of a new word. Especially, children age 4 or more showed a significant effect for linguistic contrast; however, it was not sufficient to teach 3-year-old the correct, referent of a term. (2) There was a hierarchy of domains into which children mapped a new word. There was no significant effect for domains into which 3-year-old children mapped the new word, but from 4 years of age children showed a preference for assuming a new word refered to an object's shape rather than its color. (3) Children's existing lexicon had no effect, on how children comprehend a new word.