Overview

How do children learn that the word ""dog"" refers not to all four-legged animals, and not just to Ralph, but to all members of a particular species? How do they learn the meanings of verbs like ""think,"" adjectives like ""good,"" and words for abstract entities such as ""mortgage"" and ""story""? The acquisition of word meaning is one of the fundamental issues in the study of mind.According to Paul Bloom, children learn words through sophisticated cognitive abilities that exist for other purposes. These include the ability to infer others' intentions, the ability to acquire concepts, an appreciation of syntactic structure, and certain general learning and memory abilities. Although other researchers have associated word learning with some of these capacities, Bloom is the first to show how a complete explanation requires all of them. The acquisition of even simple nouns requires rich conceptual, social, and linguistic capacities interacting in complex ways. This book requires no background in psychology or linguistics and is written in a clear, engaging style. Topics include the effects of language on spatial reasoning, the origin of essentialist beliefs, and the young child's understanding of representational art. The book should appeal to general readers interested in language and cognition as well as to researchers in the field.

Full Product Details

Author:   Paul Bloom (Yale University) ,  Jeffrey S. Rosenschein
Publisher:   MIT Press Ltd
Imprint:   MIT Press
Edition:   New edition
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.60cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.431kg
ISBN:  

9780262523295

ISBN 10:   0262523299
Pages:   314
Publication Date:   25 January 2002
Recommended Age:   From 18 years
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

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Reviews

... this book is likely to have a profound impact on the field of child language. -- Anne Bezuidenhout, Metapsychology Online Review This is a tremendously important book. It provides a new theoretical perspective on language learning, consolidating and making sense of a wealth of new research findings. --Susan A. Gelman, University of Michigan

... this book is likely to have a profound impact on the field of child language. -Anne Bezuidenhout, Metapsychology Online Review

Author Information

Paul Bloom is Professor of Psychology at Yale University.

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