Object Naming and Later Lexical Development

Learning to name objects is no sinecure. Children’s initial word use often will not correspond to the adult use of the same word. We suggest that semantic development may continue well past the early years of language acquisition, even for names for concrete objects. We studied evolution of the use of common nouns taking place during later lexical development. Children aged 5, 8, 10, 12 and 14 years and adults named common household objects and their naming patterns were compared. The results showed a gradual convergence to the adult categories over age. Rather than adding new words to their vocabulary, children reorganize the existing categories. Features collected from adults were used to predict the naming patterns of the different age groups. In line with Mervis (1987), children gradually learn to attend to the right features and gradually assign the appropriate weight to these features. However, the features do not tell the full story. Each language contains idiosyncratic mappings between objects and words that must be mastered through experience. Implications for theories of later lexical development are discussed.