Lexical development is at the heart of language acquisition. In many languages, this development is inherently involved with the emergence, growth, and consolidation of morphological systematicity, which typically takes place between the ages of two and six years. Across languages, vocabulary size has been found to be the single most powerful predictor of children’s grammatical development: children’s syntax emerges in tandem with their lexical growth, as demonstrated by the close affinity between lexical frequency and the formation of grammatical generalizations. Learning the content word lexicon of nouns, verbs, and adjectives/adverbs as well as their inflectional paradigms requires frequent encounters with words in diverse contexts. Thus the emergence, growth, and consolidation of morphological systematicity in both inflection and derivation is of utmost importance in investigating early syntactic and lexical development. Moreover, the acquisition of morpho-lexical and morpho-syntactic structures and semantics can serve as an arena for testing hypotheses and theories about language acquisition, processing, and use. SES Differences in acquisition contexts will also inform about the pace and trajectory of development.
Early linguistic learning takes place in a dynamic, changing domain, integrating data from multiple components and distinct planes over developmental time. Accordingly, this themed topic aims to examine the multidimensional factors involved in morpho-lexical and morpho-syntactic development in the preschool years.
One factor to consider is the nature of the relationship between lexicon and syntax in these attainments: In what different ways do content words - nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs - develop? What is the relationship between inflectional diversity and lexical acquisition? How do syntax and derivational morphology interface? A second factor relates to the role of frequency in all its diverse meanings in the development of lexicon, morphology, and syntax in the preschool years.
A third goal this themed issue addresses is the communicative contexts in which morpho-lexical and morphosyntactic acquisition takes place. What is the role of linguistic and communicative input in parent-child dyads and in preschool/kindergarten teacher-child communication? And from a different, not less important perspective, what is the role of interlocutors in peer conversations, and how do they affect each other as interactions take place? With a broader definition of context, how do different SES environments influence the nature of the input children to receive and their linguistic output?
A fourth focal point is the role of elicitation procedures in gaining information about morpho-lexical learning. How can experiments contribute to our knowledge of this subject? And what can we expect to see in corpus and other naturalistic contexts?
Finally, given that languages differ in their structural properties and the ways information is packaged in words and syntactic units, what is the role of language typology in morpho-lexical and morphosyntactic acquisition, in both monolingual and bilingual speakers?
Themes:
Lexical, morphological, and syntactic acquisition and development in the preschool years - the roles of the linguistic domain, lexical class, frequency, input, interlocutors, SES contexts, elicitation methods, and language typology.
Types of manuscripts:
Original research, Meta-analyses, Systematic review, Review, Methods articles, Clinical and/or pedagogical programs
Lexical development is at the heart of language acquisition. In many languages, this development is inherently involved with the emergence, growth, and consolidation of morphological systematicity, which typically takes place between the ages of two and six years. Across languages, vocabulary size has been found to be the single most powerful predictor of children’s grammatical development: children’s syntax emerges in tandem with their lexical growth, as demonstrated by the close affinity between lexical frequency and the formation of grammatical generalizations. Learning the content word lexicon of nouns, verbs, and adjectives/adverbs as well as their inflectional paradigms requires frequent encounters with words in diverse contexts. Thus the emergence, growth, and consolidation of morphological systematicity in both inflection and derivation is of utmost importance in investigating early syntactic and lexical development. Moreover, the acquisition of morpho-lexical and morpho-syntactic structures and semantics can serve as an arena for testing hypotheses and theories about language acquisition, processing, and use. SES Differences in acquisition contexts will also inform about the pace and trajectory of development.
Early linguistic learning takes place in a dynamic, changing domain, integrating data from multiple components and distinct planes over developmental time. Accordingly, this themed topic aims to examine the multidimensional factors involved in morpho-lexical and morpho-syntactic development in the preschool years.
One factor to consider is the nature of the relationship between lexicon and syntax in these attainments: In what different ways do content words - nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs - develop? What is the relationship between inflectional diversity and lexical acquisition? How do syntax and derivational morphology interface? A second factor relates to the role of frequency in all its diverse meanings in the development of lexicon, morphology, and syntax in the preschool years.
A third goal this themed issue addresses is the communicative contexts in which morpho-lexical and morphosyntactic acquisition takes place. What is the role of linguistic and communicative input in parent-child dyads and in preschool/kindergarten teacher-child communication? And from a different, not less important perspective, what is the role of interlocutors in peer conversations, and how do they affect each other as interactions take place? With a broader definition of context, how do different SES environments influence the nature of the input children to receive and their linguistic output?
A fourth focal point is the role of elicitation procedures in gaining information about morpho-lexical learning. How can experiments contribute to our knowledge of this subject? And what can we expect to see in corpus and other naturalistic contexts?
Finally, given that languages differ in their structural properties and the ways information is packaged in words and syntactic units, what is the role of language typology in morpho-lexical and morphosyntactic acquisition, in both monolingual and bilingual speakers?
Themes:
Lexical, morphological, and syntactic acquisition and development in the preschool years - the roles of the linguistic domain, lexical class, frequency, input, interlocutors, SES contexts, elicitation methods, and language typology.
Types of manuscripts:
Original research, Meta-analyses, Systematic review, Review, Methods articles, Clinical and/or pedagogical programs