Maternal uses of non-object terms in child-directed speech: Color, number and time

Abstract

Non-object terms including color, number and time words pose a challenge for word learning due in part to non-obvious word-referent mappings. Finding early word-word knowledge for such terms, Shatz has suggested that exposure to them in varied conversational contexts might facilitate word-word mappings. To address whether input feasibly carries such information, we examined longitudinal transcripts from the CHILDES database for the frequency and uses of subsets of color and number words in mothers' speech to toddlers and of time words to preschoolers. All the mothers studied made varied uses of the terms from these lexical categories. The findings support the argument that varied conversational input provides useful data for children to create early word-word mappings for non-object terms.

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