On Relational Meaning: The Acquisition of Verb Meaning

The acquisition of verb meaning is discussed and compared with the acquisition of simple noun meaning. Evidence presented from three experiments with children and adults indicates that (1) verbal meanings are relatively slow to be acquired; (2) the acquisition of verb meaning involves the gradual addition of semantic components; and (3) verbs are used by children and adults with greater breadth of application then are simple nouns. These findings are discussed in terms of the kinds of meaning conveyed ty nouns and verbs: simple nouns refer to real world entities and verbs convey relationships among entities.