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

• All the children provided significantly more “functional” properties for the words
describing artifacts than for the words describing animals across testing. The same
pattern was found to be significant for the Definition and Lexical contrast group
during post tests 1 and 3.

“Semantic properties ”

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

• During post test 2, the Definition group provided significantly more "semantic"'
properties than the Ostensive definition group. The same pattern was evident for post
test 3.

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

• The children provided significantly more “semantic"' properties during post test 3
than post tests 1 and 2.

Does the children ^,s prior knowledge of the lexical items influence the provision of semantic
properties?

• No significant differences were found in the provision of “semantic"' properties by
the children’s prior knowledge of the lexical items.

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

• No significant differences were found as a function of the semantic domain.

Reference to the target word

• The Lexical contrast and Definition groups referred to the target words significantly
more frequently than the other groups. Furthermore, the children referred to the target
items by using the target word, or a synonym, or a pronoun.

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