Discussion Questions: 13 Feb

1. What are the facts of over-extension? Why is it sometimes difficult to say what counts as an over-extension? What does over-extension have to do with lexical gaps?

2. What does the way a particular child learns form have to do with the way s/he learns meaning? Why do we need to know something about the acquisition of phonology in order to study the meanings of a child's first words?

3. How might syntactic categories such as Noun, Verb, and Adjective be related to the acquisition of the meanings of words?

4. In what ways are actions/events similar to and different from objects and what might the implications be for acquisition?

5. How are (what appear to be) children's early assumptions about space and time reflected in their early language comprehension?

6. How does the principle of Contrast operate in the speech of adults?