Mapping Meaning to Words

radical translation

an infinite number of hypotheses about word meaning are possible given that humans are exposed to. that is, the input underspecifies words’ meaning

highly structured and highly messy

language and linguistic communication is simultaneously…

highly structured

shared conventions

impression that most meanings are stable

communication is normally effortless

highly messy

many possible form-to-meaning mappings

ambiguity, even with contextual information

no objective notion of what these meanings are 

knowledge of a word

must include the following:

phonological information, grammatical category information, morphological structure, conceptual representation, and social context

whole-object bias and mutual exclusivity

what are the two key lexical principles for children when learning the mapping?

whole-object bias

“assume that a new word refers to the whole object, and not parts of the object”

mutual exclusivity

avoid having to labels for one referent

cross-situational learning (global intersective)

learners store and keep track of all alternatives — including the possibilities they encountered but didn’t choose

fast-mapping (propose but verify)

learners form an initial hypothesis and only revise it in the presence of negative evidence — without considering the possibilities they encountered but didn’t choose

hypothesis 1: cross-situational learning

learners accrue a “best” final hypothesis by comparing multiple episodic memories of prior contexts

final conjectures will be indifferent to the sequential position of the situations in which a word is encountered

multiple meanings (traces of past encounters) will be stored and tracked across encounters with a particular word

hypothesis 2: the fast mapping hypothesis

learners hypothesize that a single meaning based on their first encounter with a word

learners neither weigh nor even store back-up alternative meanings

on later encounters, learners attempt to retrieve this hypothesis from memory and test it against a new context, updating it only if it is discontinued

is more attractive for learners because you don’t need a ton of prior knowledge/experience, don’t have to remember past experiences

allows to be lighter, less of a package to carry with us

is the preferred hypothesis