The Implications of Polysemy for Theories of Word Learning

Autor/inn/en	Srinivasan, Mahesh; Rabagliati, Hugh
Titel	The Implications of Polysemy for Theories of Word Learning
Quelle	In: Child Development Perspectives, 15 (2021) 3, S.148-153 (6 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Srinivasan, Mahesh) ORCID (Rabagliati, Hugh)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1750-8592
DOI	10.1111/cdep.12411
Schlagwörter	Vocabulary Development; Language Acquisition; Learning Processes; Linguistic Theory; Definitions + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Wortschatzarbeit; Sprachaneignung; Spracherwerb; Learning process; Lernprozess; Linguistische Theorie; Begriffsbestimmung
Abstract	Word learning is typically studied as a problem in which children need to learn a single meaning for a new word. And by most theories, children's learning is itself guided by the assumption that a new word will have only one meaning. However, the majority of words in languages are polysemous, carrying multiple related and distinct meanings. Here, we consider the implications of this disjuncture. As we review, current theories predict that children should struggle to learn polysemous words. And yet research shows that young children readily learn multiple meanings for words and represent them in qualitatively similar ways to adults. Moreover, polysemy may facilitate word learning, by allowing children to use their knowledge of familiar meanings of a word to learn its other meanings. These findings motivate a new perspective on word learning that recognizes polysemy as a fundamental feature of language, instead of treating it as an edge case. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01