Noun versus Verb Bias Revisited

Recently, researchers have been debating whether Korean children exhibit a verb bias or not. Since verbs are perceptually and structurally more salient in Korean language, it has been questioned whether these differences in the Korean make a difference in the pattern of noun and verb acquisition of Korean children. Although language structures may vary between Korean and English, universal cognitive constraints play an important role in early vocabulary acquisition. Several recent studies have examined the noun and verb acquisition of Korean children. However, their conclusions regarding the noun versus verb bias have still been inconclusive. In this paper, previous studies investigating Korean children's noun versus verb bias are examined. Methodological issues are mentioned and results were reinterpreted as favoring the noun bias for one-year-old Korean children.