NVESTIGATING LEXICAL ACQUISITION PATTERNS: CONTEXT AND COGNITION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Four years ago when I finished my Master’s Dissertation with the title “Cognitive constraints
or contextual strategies?” I became aware that the inquiries into the role of constraints for
word learning raised a number of difficult issues about the word learning process. Since then,
I’ve started working on the present thesis with my supervisor Professor Julie Dockrell. A
particular dept of gratitude is owed to her, for her devotion, interest, and unfailing support.
She has always been positive, encouraging and stimulating. I could never express fully my
gratitude to her for her deep insights, constructive comments and abiding commitment, and
above all her friendship.

There are also other important people whose contribution was invaluable for the writing up
of this thesis. I would like to thank all the children who took part in the study for their
enthusiasm and hard work, as well as their teachers and head teachers of the Primary schools
in London.

I am also indebted to many people from the Institute of Education. I would like to thank Dr.
Geoff Woodhouse for his helpful comments on the statistical analysis, Dr. Morag Stuart for
her valuable suggestions on my upgrade report and Ms Anna Brett for the proofreading of
this thesis. I have also benefited from discussions with Ms Rachel George, sharing the same
worries throughout the years.

I am very grateful to my wonderful family, especially my parents Sofia and Miltiadis Rallis,
as well as my grandmother Ourania Bogdanou. Their everlasting love, support and patience
across the miles kept me going during the years.

Most of all, I would like to thank my husband Babis Tsatsarelis for his love, support, patience
as well as his invaluable suggestions through long discussions over the years.

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