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Cited by 1,922

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 54 of the 54 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

How Children Learn the Meanings of Words

Open access
Bloom, Paul·2000·The MIT Press eBooks
DOI 10.7551/mitpress/3577.001.0001
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Abstract

How do children learn that the word "dog" refers not to all four-legged animals, and not just to Ralph, but to all members of a particular species? How do they learn the meanings of verbs like "think," adjectives like "good," and words for abstract entities such as "mortgage" and "story"? The acquisition of word meaning is one of the fundamental issues in the study of mind. According to Paul Bloom, children learn words through sophisticated cognitive abilities that exist for other purposes. These include the ability to infer others' intentions, the ability to acquire concepts, an appreciation of syntactic structure, and certain general learning and memory abilities. Although other researchers have associated word learning with some of these capacities, Bloom is the first to show how a complete explanation requires all of them. The acquisition of even simple nouns requires rich conceptual, social, and linguistic capacities interacting in complex ways. This book requires no background in psychology or linguistics and is written in a clear, engaging style. Topics include the effects of language on spatial reasoning, the origin of essentialist beliefs, and the young child's understanding of representational art. The book should appeal to general readers interested in language and cognition as well as to researchers in the field. Bradford Books imprint

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Metadata

Authors
Bloom, P.
Venue
The MIT Press eBooks
Publisher
The MIT Press
Published
2000-02-28
DOI
10.7551/mitpress/3577.001.0001
OpenAlex
W1732736211
Cited by
1,922
References
54
FWCI
74.65
Type
book
Language
en
Open access
gold

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