Is the provision of contextual properties influenced by the semantic domain of the lexical
items?

Children provided more “contextual” properties for the words describing animals than for
those describing artifacts across testing. The differences were found to be significant during
post test 2 (Wilcoxon: Z=2.1, p<.05). The same pattern was found for each group, however,
the differences were significant for the Lexical contrast group during post test 1 (Wilcoxon:
Z=2.02, p<.05) and the Definition group during post test 2 (Wilcoxon: Z=2.3, p<.05).

Key Andings from the definition task

Is there a differential impact of the type of exposure to new lexical items that the children
receive on the provision of definitions ?

•      The provision of definitions differed significantly by group during post test 2 and 3.

During post test 2, the Definition group performed significantly better than the
Ostensive definition and Lexical contrast group. During post test 3 the Definition
group provided significantly more definitions than the other groups. In addition the
Lexical contrast group provided significantly more definitions than the Control and
Phonological Control group.

Does children ^,s provision of definitions increase with increased exposure to the lexical
items?

• All the children provided significantly more definitions during post test 2 than post
test 1 and more definitions during post test 3 than post test 2 and post test 1.

• All the experimental groups provided significantly more definitions over time.

Does the children’s prior knowledge of the lexical items influence the provision of
definitions?

• All the children tended to provide more definitions for the partially represented than
the unknown words, however the differences were not significant. The previous
pattern was statistically significant for the Phonological Control group.

Is the provision of definitions influenced by the semantic domain of the lexical items?

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