Learning names for materials: Factors constraining and limiting hypotheses about word meaning

Children's ability to learn new words quickly (Carey, 1978; Dickinson, 1984b; Heibeck & Markman, in press) indicates that they have strategies for constraining hypotheses about word meaning. The initial hypotheses children entertain about the meaning of words that name materials were examined in two studies. The first study examined the effects of linguistic constraint supplied by count/mass syntactic information and of conceptual constraints—Object Bias for Solids (i.e., words applied to solids name objects, not materials; Soja, Carey, & Spelke, 1985), and Substance Bias for Nonsolids (i.e., words applied to nonsolids name materials). A second study investigated the effects of providing more explicit information about word meaning by including the phrase “made of” when words were presented. In both studies, 16 children, aged 3, 4, and 5, were introduced to an object or material and told a name for it in phrases that varied the information provided. They then were shown two items and asked to indicate which was an example of the presentation stimulus. Mass syntax was somewhat effective in helping children map words to material concepts, but conceptual constraints were more important. Children of all ages were poor at learning names for materials when the word referred to unfamiliar objects made of unfamiliar materials, but the phrase “made of” helped reduce the effect of the Object Bias for Solids among 5-year-olds. Age-related developments suggest that acquisition of material names also is affected by improving access to material concepts.