NVESTIGATING LEXICAL ACQUISITION PATTERNS: CONTEXT AND COGNITION



Does the children ,s prior knowledge of the lexical items influence the provision of “animal
contrasts”?

Statistical analysis revealed no significant differences.

Is the provision of “animal contrasts ” influenced by the semantic domain of the lexical
items?

The children provided significantly more animal contrasts for the words describing animals
than for the words describing artifacts across testing (Wilcoxon, Pl: Z=5.3, p<.0005; P2:
Z=4.2, p<.0005; P3: Z=6.3, p<.0005). The same pattern was evident for each one of the
groups across testing. The differences were found to be significant for the Control group
(Wilcoxon: P3: Z=2.5, ρ<.05), the Phonological control group (Wilcoxon: P3: Z=2.1, p<.0)
the Ostensive definition group (Wilcoxon: Pl: Z=2.7, p<.05) the Lexical contrast group
(Wilcoxon: Pl: Z=2.8, p<.005; P2: Z=2.8, p<.005; P3: 3.3, p<.005); and Definition group
(Wilcoxon: Pl: 3.7, p<.0005; P2: Z=2.8, p<.005; P3: Z=3.9, p<.0005).

Analysis of the “cutlery contrasts”

Is there a differential impact of the type of exposure to new lexical items that the children
receive on the provision of “cutlery contrasts ”?

During post test 2 the Definition group provided significantly more cutlery contrasts than
the Ostensive definition group (Wilcoxon: Z=2.04, p<.05). Last, during post test 3, the
Lexical contrast group provided significantly more cutlery contrasts than the Control
(Wilcoxon: Z=2.1, p<.05) and the Phonological control group (Wilcoxon: Z=2.1, p<.05).

Does children’s provision of “cutlery contrasts” increase with increased exposure to the
lexical items?

Statistical analysis revealed no significant differences over time.

Does the children ,s prior knowledge of the lexical items influence the provision of “cutlery
contrasts ”?

The children provided significantly more cutlery contrasts for the unknown than for the
partially represented words across testing (Wilcoxon: Pl: Z=3.7, p<.0005; P2: Z=3.4,
p<.0005; P3: Z=4.2, p<.0000). The same pattern was evident for the Ostensive definition
group across testing (Wilcoxon: Pl: Z=2.2, p<.05; P2: Z=2.02, p<.05; P3: Z=2.3, p<.05), the

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