Testing the Use of Whole-part Juxtaposition and Mutual Exclusivity in Preschool Children with Familiar and Non-familiar Objects

1. Summary of the theory and issues Young children's rapid acquisition of words and language suggests that they use word learning rules and tools to aid in their fast learning. Recent studies about word learning have proposed that specific principles or tools may be utilized in children's language learning including the mutual exclusivity principle and the whole-part juxtaposition principle. The theory of mutual exclusivity is the tendency for children to assume that an object can only have one label. For example, a child's tendency to think that an object such as a soda can is only a can and cannot have any other label. When the tab on the can is pointed to, the child will assume it is a part of the can because the can already has a separate label. This assumption may help children assign meanings to novel words by considering only those meanings and referents for which they do not already have a label. However, the mutual exclusivity assumption serves as just an assumption because it may not always be followed. Some objects do have more than one label. In addition, whole-part juxtaposing enables children to address novel part terms with familiar object labels. For example, if a researcher points to a bird and says 'that is a bird' (familiar object), the research can then say 'a bird with a beak' (unfamiliar object) and the child will become familiar with the beak, the unfamiliar object, by recognizing the familiar object and coming to conclusions about each separate part. Juxtaposing novel part terms with familiar whole-object labels provides possible cues to children that refer to something other than the whole object. Markman and Wachtel (1988) conducted a classic study in which they investigated children's use of mutual exclusivity in deciphering part labels. The phenomenon of interest was their specific interest in children's use of mutual exclusivity in deciphering novel parts of given objects. Markman and Wachtel believed that if children adhere to the mutual exclusivity assumption when a familiar whole object term is juxtaposed with a novel part term children will be cued to assume that the novel term is referring to something other than the whole object and must be referring to an alternative part of the whole object. Alternately, Markman and Wachtel thought that the mere juxtaposition between familiar and novel terms may assist in part term acquisition, not only mutual exclusivity. Throughout the study …