This project looks at the METALANGUAGE DIRECTIONS about words and word meanings contained in child directed speech, and at their UPTAKE by children. Metalanguage directions may be explicit, as in the provision of a term for a category (`That's a squirrel`) or implicit, as when the speaker assumes the addressee can infer the identify the target referent (`Bring me the soup spoon`). Both explicit and implicit directions can be used to introduce children to new terms and to offer repairs when children come up with terms that are inappropriate or not specific enough. The theoretical issue here is the extent to which children aged 1;6 to 5;0 are offered and can make use of such metalanguage directions in their word learning. Identification of the pragmatic information available to and usable by you ng children offers an alternative to proposals based on constraints on word acquisition. The studies are both observational and experimental. In the observational studies, we will analyze the range of metalanguage directions actually used, and examine the consistency with which they serve to introduce members of different word classes (e.g., nouns vs verbs vs prepositions) as well as different semantic relations (e.g., inclusion, part of). We will also look at evidence for uptake (from children's usage) and its relation to the type of metalanguage direction used. In the experimental studies, we examine in detail the range of forms adults make use of in their metalanguage directions when they are asked to teach words from different word classes (e.g., nouns vs adjectives vs verbs). We also look at children's ability to understand differences between explicit and implicit directions used both to introduce new terms and to repair terms already under consideration. Lastly, we look at whether the same range of metalanguage directions is used when adults teach other adults new terms in an unfamiliar domain. These studies will allow us to establish (a) the extent to which there is a continuum of forms for metalanguage directions, from explicit to implicit, and also a continuum from implicit directions to inductions; (b) whether words in some word classes can be taught while others must be induced (e.g., nouns and verbs vs prepositions); (c) whether adults favor particular kinds of metalanguage directions for particular word classes (e.g., whether proper nouns are typically offered in explicit directions, compared to verbs, say, in implicit ones), and (d) how effective different metalanguage forms are for word learning, as measured by child uptake.
