Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Developmental Differences in the Naming of Contextually Non-Categorical Objects

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research volume 41, pages 51–69 (2012)Cite this article

Abstract

This study investigates the naming process of contextually non-categorical objects in children from 3 to 9 plus 13-year-olds. 112 children participated in the study. Children were asked to narrate a story individually while looking at Mercer Mayer’s textless, picture book Frog, where are you? The narratives were audio recorded and transcribed. Texts were analyzed to find out how children at different ages name contextually non-categorical objects, tree and its parts in this case. Our findings revealed that increasing age in children is a positive factor in naming objects that are parts or extended forms of an object which itself constitutes a basic category in a certain context. Younger children used categorical names more frequently to refer to parts or disfigured forms of the object than older children and adults while older children and adults used specified names to refer to the parts or extended forms of the categorical names.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Access options

Buy single article

Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

References

  • Arterberry M., Bornstein M. (2001) Three-month-old infants’ categorization of animals and vehicles based on static and dynamic attributes. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 80: 333–346

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Arterberry M., Bornstein M. (2002) Infant perceptual and conceptual categorization: The roles of static and dynamic stimulus attributes. Cognition 86: 1–24

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Balaban M. T., Waxman S. R. (1997) Do words facilitate object categorization in 9-month-old infants?. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 64: 3–26

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Biederman I., Subramaniam S., Bar M., Kalocsai P., Fiser J. (1999) Subordinate-level object classification reexamined. Psychological Research 62: 131–153

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Booth A. E., Waxman S. (2002) Object names and object functions serve as cues to categories for infants. Developmental Psychology 38(6): 948–957

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, E. V. (1983) Meanings and concepts. In J. H. Flavell, & E. M. Markman (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology. Cognitive development (general editor P. H. Mussen) (Vol. 3, 4th ed., pp. 787–840). New York: Wiley.

  • Diesendruck G. (2003) Categories for names or names for categories? The interplay between domain-specific conceptual structure and language. Language and Cognitive Processes 18(5/6): 759–787

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diesendruck G., Gelman S. A., Lebowitz K. (1998) Conceptual and linguistic biases in children’s word learning. Developmental Psychology 34(5): 823–839

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Eimas P. D., Quinn P. C. (1994) Studies on the formation of perceptually based basic-level categories in young infants. Child Development 65: 903–917

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gelman S. A. (2006) Early conceptual development. In: Kethleen M., Deborah P. (eds) The Blackwell handbook of early childhood development. Blackwell, Oxford, pp 149–166

    Google Scholar 

  • Gelman S. A., Coley J. D. (1990) The importance of knowing a dodo is a bird: Categories and inferences in 2-year-old children. Developmental Psychology 26(5): 796–804

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gelman S. A., Coley J. D. (1991) Language and categorization: The acquisition of natural kind terms. In: Gelman S. A., Byrnes J. P. (eds) Perspectives on language and thought: Interrelations in development. CUP, Cambridge, pp 146–196

    Google Scholar 

  • Gelman S. A., Croft W., Fu P., Clausner T., Gottfried G. (1998) Why is a pomegranate an apple? The role of shape, taxonomic relatedness and prior lexical knowledge in children’s overextensions of apple and dog. Journal of Child Language 25: 267–291

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gelman S.A., Opfer J.E. (2002) Cognitive development in early childhood. In: Goswami U. (eds) Blackwell handbook of cognitive development. Blackwell, Malden, p 147

    Google Scholar 

  • Gelman S. A., Rhodes M. (2009) A developmental examination of the conceptual structure of animal, artifact, and human social categories across two cultural contexts. Cognitive Psychology 59: 244–274

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gershkoff-Stowe L., Thal D. J., Smith L. B., Namy L. L. (1997) Categorization and its developmental relation to early language. Child Development 68(5): 843–859

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Golinkoff R. M., Mervis C. B., Hirsh-Pasek K. (1994) Early object labels: The case for a developmental lexical principles framework. Journal of Child Language 21: 125–155

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gopnik A., Meltzoff A. N. (1987) The development of categorization in the second year and its relation to other cognitive and linguistic developments. Child Development 58: 1523–1531

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Göksel A., Kerslake C. (2005) Turkish: A comprehensive grammar. Routledge, London

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hoff-Ginsberg E. (1997) Language development. Brooks/Cole Publishing, Pacific Grove

    Google Scholar 

  • Horton M. S., Markman E. M. (1980) Developmental differences in the acquisition of basic and superordinate categories. Child Development 51: 708–719

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kagan J. (1970) The determinants of attention in the infant. American Scientist 58: 298–306

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kornfilt J. (1997) Turkish. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu J., Golinkoff R. M., Sak K. (2001) One cow does not an animal make: Young children can extend novel words at the superordinate level. Child Development 72(6): 1674–1694

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Madole K.L., Oakes L.M. (1999) Making sense of infant categorization: Stable processes and changing representations. Developmental Review 19: 263–296

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mandler J. M. (2003) Conceptual categorization. In: Rakison D. H., Oakes L. M. (eds) Early category and concept development: Making sense of the blooming, buzzing confusion. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 103–131

    Google Scholar 

  • Mandler J. M., Bauer P. J., McDonough L. (1991) Separating sheep from the goats: Differentiating global categories. Cognitive Psychology 23: 263–298

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mandler J. M., McDonough L. (1996) Drinking and driving don’t mix: Inductive generalization in infancy. Cognition 59: 307–335

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mandler J. M., McDonough L. (1998) Studies in inductive inference in infancy. Cognitive Psychology 37: 60–96

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Markman E. M. (1989) Categorization and naming in children: Problems of induction. The MIT Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Masur E. F. (1997) Maternal labelling of novel and familiar objects: Implications for children’s development of lexical constraints. Journal of Child Language 24: 427–439

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mayer M. (1969) Frog, where are you?. Puffin Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • McDonough L., Mandler J.M. (1998) Inductive generalization in 9- and 11-month-olds. Developmental science 1(2): 227–232

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mervis C. B. (1985) On the existence of prelinguistic categories: A case study. Infant Behavior and Development 8: 293–300

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mervis C. B., Crisafi M. A. (1982) Order of acquisition of subordinate-, basic-, and superordinate level categories. Child Development 53: 258–266

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mervis C. B., Rosch E. (1981) Categorization of natural objects. Annual Review of Psychology 32: 85–115

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mushin I. (2000) Evidentiality and deixis in narrative retelling. Journal of Pragmatics 32: 927–957

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oakes L. M. (2009) Categorization skills and concepts. In: Benson J. B., Haith M. M. (eds) Language, memory and cognition in infancy and early childhood. Academic Press, Oxford, pp 91–101

    Google Scholar 

  • Ozcan, M. (2005). Developmental differences in the use of deixis by children from 3 to 9 plus 13-year-olds. Paper presented at Linguistics at Oxford Postgraduate conference, Oxford University. September, 23–24, 2005.

  • Pauen S., Träuble B. (2009) How 7-month-olds interpret ambiguous motion events: Category-based reasoning in infancy. Cognitive Psychology 59: 275–295

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Quine, W. V. (1965). Propositional objects. A lecture given at the University of Michigan, the University of Chicago, the university of Illinois, and Amherst College in the spring of 1965. URL:http://critica.filosoficas.unam.mx/pdf/C5/c5_Quine.pdf.

  • Quinn P. C. (2002) Early categorization: A new synthesis. In: Goswami U. (eds) Blackwell handbook of childhood cognitive development. Blackwell, Oxford, pp 84–101

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Quinn P. C. (2011) Born to categorize. In: Goswami U. (eds) The Wiley-Handbook of childhood cognitive development. Wiley-Blackwell, West Sussex, pp 129–152

    Google Scholar 

  • Quinn P. C., Eimas P. D., Tarr M. J. (2001) Perceptual categorization of cat and dog silhouettes by 3- to 4-month-old infants. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 79: 78–94

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Riccuiti H. N., Thomas M., Ricciuti A. E. (2006) Availability and spontaneous use of verbal labels in sorting categorization by 16–23-month olds. Early Childhood Research Quarterly 21: 360–373

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosch E. (1975) Cognitive representations of semantic categories. Journal of Experimental Psychology 104(3): 192–233

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosch E., Mervis C. B., Gray W. D., Johnson M. D., Boyes-Braem P. (1976) Basic objects in natural categories. Cognitive Psychology 8(3): 382–439

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saylor M. M., Sabbagh M. A. (2004) Different kinds of information affect word learning in the preschool years: The case of part-term learning. Child Development 75(2): 395–408

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Saylor M. M., Sabbagh M. A., Baldwin D. A. (2002) Children use whole-part juxtaposition as a pragmatic cue to word learning. Developmental Psychology 38(6): 993–1003

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Smith L. B., Jones S., Landau B. (1996) Naming in young children: A dumb attentional mechanism?. Cognition 60: 143–171

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Streitfeld B., Wilson M. (1986) The ABCs of categorical perception. Cognitive Psychology 18: 432–451

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Waxman S. R., Shipley E. F., Shepperson B. (1991) Establishing new subcategories: The role of category labels and existing knowledge. Child Development 62: 127–138

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Welder A. N., Graham S. A. (2006) Infants’ categorization of novel objects with more or less obvious features. Cognitive Psychology 52: 57–91

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yamauchi T., Markman A. B. (1998) Category learning by inference and classification. Journal of Memory and Language 39: 124–148

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Foreign Language Education, Egitim Fakultesi, Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, Yabanci Diller Egitimi Bolumu, M-Blok No: 18, Burdur, 15100, Turkey

    Mehmet Ozcan

Authors
  1. Mehmet Ozcan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mehmet Ozcan.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ozcan, M. Developmental Differences in the Naming of Contextually Non-Categorical Objects. J Psycholinguist Res 41, 51–69 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-011-9176-0

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-011-9176-0

Keywords

search

Navigation