Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-kwt9d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-14T19:51:39.999Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Learning to make definitions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Bonnie Litowitz
Bonnie Litowitz
Affiliation:
Northwestern University
Get accessRights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The ability to define words by means of other words, which forms a part of many standardized tests, must be learned by a child. The nature of the ‘definitional task’ and the development of language responses (from children 4; 5 to 7; 5) are discussed in terms of a linguistic analysis of the definitional form and its semantic relations. Progress in definitional strategies by children moves along two continua: conceptually from the individually experiential to the socially shared; and syntactically from actual predicates through hypothetical predicates to adult definitional sentence frames. Implications include novel elicitation techniques, psycholinguistically informed evaluation of direction and scoring measures of some common standardized verbal tests, and better understanding of the range of normal development on one specific language task.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , June 1977, pp. 289 - 304
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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

References

REFERENCES

Anders, F. (1975). If you can teach an ape to read, can you do something for my retarded child? New York Times Magazine, June 1. 14–15, 47, 50, 52, 54, 55–9.Google Scholar
Andersen, E. (1975). Cups and glasses: learning that boundaries are vague. JChLang 2. 79–103.Google Scholar
Anglin, J. (1970). The growth of word meaning. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T.Google Scholar
Apresyan, Yu. D., Mel'cuk, I. A. & Zolkovsky, A. K. (1970). Semantics and lexicography: towards a new type of unilingual dictionary. In Kiefer, F. (ed.), Studies in syntax and semantics. Dordrecht: Reidel.Google Scholar
Arieti, S. (1955). Interpretation of schizophrenia. New York: Brunner.Google Scholar
Bateson, G. (1972). Steps to an ecology of mind. New York: Ballantine.Google Scholar
Bever, T. (1971). The word and its referent: general discussion. In Huxley, R. & Ingram, E. (eds), Language acquisition: models and methods. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Bierwisch, M. & Kiefer, F. (1970). Remarks on definitions in natural language. In Kiefer, F. (ed.), Studies in syntax and semantics. Dordrecht: Reidel.Google Scholar
Brown, R. (1958). Words & things. Glencoe, III.: Free Press.Google Scholar
Brown, R. (1973). A first language: the early stages. Cambridge Mass.: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruner, J. S., Goodnow, J. J. & Austin, G. A. (1956). A study of thinking. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Casagrande, J. B. & Hale, K. L. (1967). Semantic relations in Papago folk-definitions. In Hymes, D. & Bittle, W. E. (eds), Studies in southwestern ethnolinguistics: essays in honor of Harry Hoijer. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Clark, E. (1972). On the child's acquisition of antonyms in two semantic fields. JVLVB 11. 750–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, E. (1973). What's in a word? On the child's acquisition of semantics in his first language. In Moore, T. E. (ed.), Cognitive development and the acquisition of language. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Collins, A. M. & Quillian, M. R. (1969). Retrieval times from semantic memory. JVLVB 8. 240–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eco, U. (1976). A theory of semiotics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Entwistle, D., Forsyth, D. & Muus, R. (1964). The syntagmatic-paradigmatic shift in children's word association. JVLVB 3. 19–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ervin-Tripp, S. (1961). Changes with age in the verbal determinants of word-association. In Dil, A. S. (ed.), Language acquisition and communicative choice. Stanford: Stanford University Press (1973).Google Scholar
Feldman, C. & Toulmin, S. (1975). Logic and the theory of mind. Proceedings of the Nebraska Symposium on Motivation (1974–1975). In press.Google Scholar
Fillmore, C. (1968). The case for case. In Bach, E. & Harms, R. T. (eds), Universals in linguistic theory. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Fillmore, C. (1975). Santa Cruz lectures on deixis (1971). Bloomington: Indiana University Linguistics Club.Google Scholar
Flavell, J. H. & Wohlwill, J. F. (1969). Formal and functional aspects of cognitive development. In Elkind, D. & Flavell, J. H. (eds), Studies in cognitive development. London: O.U.P.Google Scholar
Harris, P. (1975). Inferences and semantic development. JChLang 2. 143–52.Google Scholar
Inhelder, R. & Piaget, J. (1958). The growth of logical thinking. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Inhelder, R. & Piaget, J. (1964). The early growth of logic in the child. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Katz, J. (1963). The philosophy of language. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Katz, J. (1972). Semantic theory. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Katz, J. & Postal, P. (1964). An integrated theory of linguistic descriptions. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T.Google Scholar
Lakoff, G. (1972). Hedges: a study in meaning criteria and the logic of fuzzy concepts. Papers from the Eighth Regional Meeting, Chicago Linguistic Society, 183–228.Google Scholar
Litowitz, B. (1975 a). Language: waking and sleeping. Psychoanalysis and contemporary science, Vol. 4. New York: International Universities Press.Google Scholar
Litowitz, B. (1975 b). The structure of semantic networks. Dissertation, Northwestern University.Google Scholar
Litowitz, B. & Harris, G. (1976). The development and uses of hypothetical speech: evidence from definitions. Paper presented to the American Speech and Hearing Association.Google Scholar
Luria, A. R. L. & Vinogradova, O. S. (1959). An objective investigation of the dynamics of semantic systems. BJPsych 50. 89–105.Google Scholar
Lyons, J. (1968). Introduction to theoretical linguistics. London: C.U.P.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Masters, J. C., Mesibov, G. B. & Anderson, G. W. (1970). Word association type and the temporal stacking of responses. JVLVB 9. 207–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McNeill, D. (1970). The acquisition of language. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Nelson, K. (1974). Concept, word and sentence: interrelations in acquisition and development. PsychRev 81. 267–85.Google Scholar
Norman, D. A. (1973). Memory, knowledge and the answering of questions. In Solso, R. L. (ed.), Contemporary issues in cognitive psychology: the Loyola Symposium. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Piaget, J. (1960). The child's conception of the world. Paterson, N.J.: Littlefield. (First published 1929, New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.)Google Scholar
Premack, D. (1970). A functional analysis of language. JExpAnalBehav 14. 107–25.Google ScholarPubMed
Quine, W. (1960). Word and object. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T.Google Scholar
Riegel, K. F. (1970). The language acquisition process: a reinterpretation of selected research findings. In Goulet, L. R. & Baltes, P. B. (eds), Life-span developmental psychology research and theory. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Rubenstein, B. (1972). On metaphor and related phenomena. In Holt, R. R. & Peter-freund, E. (eds), Psychoanalysis and contemporary science. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Rumelhart, D. E., Lindsay, P. H. & Norman, D. A. (1972). A process model for long-term memory. In Tulving, E. & Donaldson, W. (eds), Organization of memory. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Simmons, R. F. (1973). Semantic networks: their computation and use for understanding English sentences. In Schank, R. C. & Colby, K. (eds), Computer models of thought and language. San Francisco: Freeman.Google Scholar
Smith, E. E., Shoben, E. & Rips, L. J. (1974). Structure and process in semantic memory. PsychRev 81. 214–41.Google Scholar
Spradley, J. P. & McCurdy, D. W. (1972). The cultural experience: ethnography in complex society. Chicago: Science Research Associates.Google Scholar
Vygotsky, L. (1962). Thought and language. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Werner, H. & Kaplan, E. (1950). The acquisition of word meanings: a developmental study. Monogr. Soc. Res. Ch. Devel. 15.Google Scholar
Werner, O. (1973). The synthetic informant model. Proceedings of the Ninth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences. Chicago.Google Scholar
Werner, O., Levis-Matichek, G., Evens, M. & Litowitz, B. (1975). An ethnoscience view of schizophrenic speech. In Sanches, M. & Blount, B. (eds), Sociocultural dimensions of language use. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Werner, O. & Topper, M. D. (1976). On the theoretical unity of ethnoscience lexicography and ethnoscience ethnographies. Georgetown Round Table Conferences on Language and Linguistics. In press.Google Scholar
White, S. H. (1965). Evidence for a hierarchical arrangement of learning processes. In Lipsitt, L. P. & Spiker, C. C. (eds), Advances in child development and behavior, Vol. 2. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Whorf, B. (1956). Language, thought and reality. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T.Google Scholar
Wolman, R. N. & Barker, E. N. (1965). A developmental study of word definitions. JGenetPsychol 107. 159–66.Google ScholarPubMed