Hall D G, Lee S C, Bélanger J
Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Dev Psychol. 2001 May;37(3):298-307. doi: 10.1037//0012-1649.37.3.298.
In 6 experiments, 144 toddlers were tested in groups ranging in mean age from 20 to 37 months. In all experiments, children learned a novel label for a doll or a stuffed animal. The label was modeled syntactically as either a count noun (e.g., "This is a ZAV") or a proper name (e.g., "This is ZAV"). The object was then moved to a new location in front of the child, and a second identical-looking object was placed nearby. The children's task was to choose 1 of the 2 objects as a referent for the novel word. By 24 months, both girls (Experiment 2) and boys (Experiment 5) were significantly more likely to select the labeled object if they heard a proper name than if they heard a count noun. At 20 months, neither girls (Experiments 1 and 6) nor boys (Experiment 1) demonstrated this effect. By their 2nd birthdays, children can use syntactic information to distinguish appropriately between labels for individual objects and those for object categories.
在6项实验中，144名幼儿被分组测试，平均年龄在20至37个月之间。在所有实验中，孩子们学习了一个用于玩偶或填充动物玩具的新标签。该标签在句法上被模拟为可数名词（例如，“这是一个ZAV”）或专有名词（例如，“这是ZAV”）。然后将物体移到孩子面前的一个新位置，并在附近放置另一个外观相同的物体。孩子们的任务是从这两个物体中选择一个作为新单词的指代对象。到24个月大时，如果听到专有名词，女孩（实验2）和男孩（实验5）选择有标签物体的可能性显著高于听到可数名词时。在20个月大时，女孩（实验1和6）和男孩（实验1）都没有表现出这种效应。到两岁生日时，孩子们可以利用句法信息来适当地区分单个物体的标签和物体类别的标签。
