Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-2rsb6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-12T06:20:39.068Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Contrast: a semantic constraint?*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Virginia C. Gathercole
Virginia C. Gathercole*
Affiliation:
Florida International University
*
English Department, Florida International University, Miami, Florida 33199, USA.
Get accessRights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article challenges the position of Clark (1988) with regard to Contrast. The evidence cited in support of this theory from adult languages is far from clear, and the evidence coming from child language admits of alternative explanations. In addition, the ‘logic’ of assuming Contrast leads to insurmountable difficulties in the acquisition of irregular forms and allomorphs. An alternative to Contrast is proposed. This draws on the drive towards the adult system, the development of non-linguistic concepts, the acquisition of language in context, and the use of the Co-operative Principle by participants in conversational exchanges to account for those features of language and language acquisition that Contrast was designed to explain.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , October 1989, pp. 685 - 702
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

*

I wish to thank Eve Clark for stimulating this discussion and Margarita Azmitia, Lynn Berk, Becky Burns, and Barbara Pearson for helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper.

References

REFERENCES

Au, T. K. & Markman, E. M. (1987). Acquiring word meanings via linguistic contrast. Cognitive Development 2, 217–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bates, E., Bretherton, I., Shore, C. & McNew, S. (1983). Names, gestures, and objects: symbolization in infancy and aphasia. In Nelson, K. E. (ed.), Children's language. Vol. 4. Hillsdale NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Berman, R. (1986). A step-by-step model of language acquisition. In Levin, I. (ed.), Stage and structure: reopening the debate. Norwood NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Bowerman, M. (1982). Starting to talk worse: clues to language acquisition from children's late speech errors. In Strauss, S. (ed.) U-shaped behavioral growth. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Bowerman, M. (1983). How do children avoid constructing an overly general grammar in the absence of feedback about what is not a sentence? Papers and Reports on Child Language Development 22. 1–13.Google Scholar
Bowerman, M. (1985). What shapes children's grammars? In Slobin, D. I. (ed.), The crosslinguistic study of language acquisition. Vol. 2. Hillsdale NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Bowerman, M. (1988). Inducing the latent structure of language: the child's analysis of the input and the investigator's analysis of the child. In Kessel, F. (ed.), The development of language and language researchers. Essays in honour of Roger Brown. Hillsdale NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Braine, M. D. S. (1988). Review of S. Pinker, Language learnability and language development. Journal of Child Language 15, 189–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carey, S. (1978). The child as word learner. In Halle, M., Bresnan, J., & Miller, G. A. (eds), Linguistic theory and psychological reality. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press.Google Scholar
Carey, S. & Bartlett, E. (1978). Acquiring a single new word. Papers and Reports on Child Language Development 15. 17–29.Google Scholar
Clark, E. V. (1980). Lexical innovations: how children learn to create new words. Papers and Reports on Child Language Development 18. 1–24.Google Scholar
Clark, E. V. (1983 a). Convention and contrast in acquiring the lexicon. In Seiler, T. B. & Wannenmacher, W. (eds), Concept development and the development of word meaning. New York: Springer Verlag.Google Scholar
Clark, E. V. (1983 b). Meanings and concepts. In Mussen, P. H. (ed.), Carmichael's manual of child psychology. Vol. 3. Cognitive development New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Clark, E. V. (1987). The principle of contrast: a constraint on language acquisition. In Mac-Whinney, B. (ed.), Mechanisms of language acquisition. Hillsdale NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Clark, E. V. (1988). On the logic of contrast. Journal of Child Language 15. 317–35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clark, E. V. & Clark, H. (1979). When nouns surface as verbs. Language 55. 767–811.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cruse, D. A. (1986). Lexical semantics. Cambridge: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Dockrell, J. & Campbell, R. (1986). Lexical acquisition strategies in the preschool child. In Kuczaj, S. A. & Barrett, M. D. (eds), The development of word meaning. New York: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Dromi, E. (1987 a). Early lexical development. Cambridge: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Dromi, E. (1987 b). Underlying semantic and cognitive processes in the acquisition of lexical meaning. Paper prepared for the Tel Aviv University Workshop on Language and Cognition: A Developmental Perspective.Google Scholar
Gathercole, V. C. (1987). The contrastive hypothesis for the acquisition of word meanings: a reconsideration of the theory. Journal of Child Language 14, 493–531.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Golinkoff, R. M., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Baduini, C. & Lavallee, A. (1985). What's in a word?: the young child's predisposition to use lexical contrast. Paper presented at the Child Language Conference, Boston, Massachusetss.Google Scholar
Golinkoff, R. M., Hirsh-Pasek, K. & Bailey, L. M. (1988). Mutual exclusivity, lexical contrast, and categorical scope account for the learning and extension of new nouns and verbs. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Goodman, N. (1949). On likeness of meaning. Analysis 10. 115–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grice, H. P. (1975). Logic and conversation. In Cole, P. & Morgan, J. L. (eds), Syntax and semantics. Vol. 3. Speech acts. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Grice, H. P. (1978). Further notes on logic and conversation. In Cole, P. (ed.), Syntax and semantics. Vol. 9. Pragmatics. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Heibeck, T. H. & Markman, E. M. (1987). Word learning in children: an examination of fast mapping. Child Development 58. 1021–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ingram, D. (1978). Typology and universals of personal pronouns. In Greenberg, J. H. (ed.), Universal ojhuman language. Vol. 3. Word structure. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Karmiloff-Smith, A. (1983). Language acquisition as a problem-solving process. In Papers and Reports on Child Language Development 22. 1–22.Google Scholar
Karmiloff-Smith, A. (1985). A constructivist approach to modelling linguistic and cognitive development. Archives de Psychologie 53. 113–26.Google Scholar
Karmiloff-Smith, A. (1986). Stage/structure versus phase/process in modelling linguistic and cognitive development. In Levin, I. (ed.), Stage and structure. Norwood NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Keil, F. C. & Carroll, J. J. (1980). The child's conception of ‘tall’: implications for an alternative view of semantic development. Papers and Reports on Child Language Development 19. 21–8.Google Scholar
Kuczaj, S. A. (1977). The acquisition of regular and irregular past tense forms. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 16. 589–600.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuczaj, S. A. (1978). Children's judgments of grammatical and ungrammatical irregular past-tense verbs. Child Development 49. 319–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levinson, S. C. (1983). Pragmatics. Cambridge: C.U.P.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Linsky, L. (1967). Synonymity. Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Vol. 8. New York: Macmillan and The Free Press.Google Scholar
MacWhinney, B. (1978). The acquisition of morphophonology. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 43. No. 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacWhinney, B. (1985). Hungarian language acquisition as an exemplification of a general model of grammatical development. In Slobin, D. I. (ed.), The crosslinguistic study of language acquisition. Vol. 2. Theoretical issues. Hillsdale NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Maratsos, M. (1987). Review of S. Pinker, Language learnability and language development. Times Literary Supplement 01 2nd 1987: 19.Google Scholar
Maratsos, M. & Chalkley, M. A. (1980). The internal language of children's syntax: the ontogenesis and representation of syntactic categories. In Nelson, K. E. (ed.), Children's language. Vol. 2. New York: Gardner Press.Google Scholar
Markman, E. M. & Wachtel, G. F. (1988). Children's use of mutual exclusivity to constrain the meanings of words. Cognitive Psychology 20. 121–57.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Merriman, W. E. (1985). Emergence of a disposition toward lexical contrast. Paper presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Toronto.Google Scholar
Merriman, W. E. (1986). Some reasons for the occurrence and eventual correction of children's naming errors. Child Development 57. 942–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merriman, W. E. (1987). Lexical contrast in toddlers: a reanalysis of the diary evidence. Paper presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Baltimore, Maryland.Google Scholar
Merriman, W. E. (in press). The development of a disposition toward mutually exclusive word reference. Monographs of the society for research in child development.Google Scholar
Merriman, W. E. & Bowman, L. L. (1987). Developmental studies of lexical contrast. Paper presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Baltimore, Maryland.Google Scholar
Miller, G. A. (1984). Some comments on the subjective lexicon. In Schiffrin, D. (ed.), Meaning, form, and use in context: linguistic applications. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Nelson, K. (1985). Making sense: the acquisition of shared meaning. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Nelson, K. (1988). Constraints on word learning? Cognitive Development 3. 221–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, K. E. & Nelson, K. (1978). Cognitive pendulums and their linguistic realization. In Nelson, K. E. (ed.), Children's language. Vol. 1. New York: Gardner Press.Google Scholar
Pinker, S. A. (1984). Language learnability and language development. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Pinker, S. A. (1986). Productivity and conservatism in language acquisition. In Demopoulos, W. & Marras, A. (eds.), Language learning and concept acquisition. Norwood NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Real Academia Española. (1975). Esbozo de una nuevagramática de la lengua española. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe.Google Scholar
Roeper, T. (1982). On the importance of syntax and the logical use of evidence in language acquisition. In Kuczaj, S. A. (ed.), Language development Vol. 1. Syntax and semantics. Hillsdale NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Rollins, C. D. (1950). The philosophical denial of sameness of meaning. Analysis 11. 38–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shatz, M. (1987). Bootstrapping operations in child language. In Nelson, K. E. & van Kleeck, A. (eds), Children's language. Vol. 6. Hillsdale NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Shwayder, D. (1954). Some remarks on ‘synonymity’ and the language of semanticists. Philosophical studies 5. 1–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slobin, D. I. (1966). The acquisition of Russian as a native language. In Smith, F. & Miller, G. A. (eds.), The genesis of language: a psycholinguistic approach. Cambridge MA: M.I.T. Press.Google Scholar
Slobin, D. I. (1973). Cognitive prerequisites for the development of grammar. In Ferguson, C. A. & Slobin, D. I. (eds.), Studies of child language development. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Slobin, D. I. (1985). Crosslinguistic evidence for the language-making capacity. In Slobin, D. I. (ed.), The crosslinguistic study of language acquisition. Vol. 2. Theoretical issues. Hillsdale NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Strang, B. M. H. (1970). A history of English. New York: Methuen.Google Scholar
Taylor, M. & Gelman, S. A. (1988). Adjectives and nouns: children's strategies for learning new words. Child Development 59, 411–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, M. & Gelman, S. A. (in press). Language hierarchies in 2-year-old children. Child Development.Google Scholar
Visser, F. T. (1978). An historical syntax of the English language. Vol. III. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar