Abstract：
The words that children learn change over time in predictable ways. The first words that infants acquire are generally ones that are both frequent and highly imageable. Older infants also learn words that are more abstract and some that are less common. It is unclear whether this pattern is attributable to maturational factors (i.e., younger children lack sufficiently developed cognitive faculties needed to learn abstract words) or linguistic factors (i.e., younger children lack sufficient knowledge of their language to use grammatical or contextual cues needed to figure out the meaning of more abstract words). The present study explores this question by comparing vocabulary acquisition in 53 preschool-aged children (M = 51 months, range = 30-76 months) who were adopted from China and Eastern Europe after two and half years of age and 53 vocabulary-matched infant controls born and raised in English speaking families in North America (M = 24 months, range = 16-33 months). Vocabulary was assessed using the MB-CDI Words and Sentences form, word frequency was estimated from the CHILDES database, and imageability was measured using adult ratings of how easily words could be pictured mentally. Both groups were more likely to know words that were both highly frequent and imageable (resulting in an over-additive interaction). Knowledge of a word was also independently affected by the syntactic category that it belongs to. Adopted preschoolers\' vocabulary was slightly less affected by imageability. These findings were replicated in a comparison with a larger sample of vocabulary-matched controls drawn from the MB-CDI norming study (M = 22 months, range = 16-30 months; 33 girls). These results suggest that the patterns of acquisition in children\'s early vocabulary are primarily driven by the accrual of linguistic knowledge, but that vocabulary may also be affected by differences in early life experiences or conceptual knowledge.
摘要：
孩子们学习的单词随着时间的推移以可预测的方式改变。婴儿获得的第一个单词通常是既频繁又可高度想象的单词。年龄较大的婴儿还会学习更抽象的单词，有些不太常见。目前尚不清楚这种模式是否归因于成熟因素(即，年幼的孩子缺乏学习抽象单词所需的足够发达的认知能力)或语言因素(即年幼的孩子缺乏足够的语言知识，无法使用语法或上下文提示来弄清楚更抽象的单词的含义）。本研究通过比较53名学龄前儿童的词汇习得来探讨这个问题(M=51个月，range=30-76个月），在两岁半之后从中国和东欧收养，并且在北美的英语家庭中出生和长大的53个词汇匹配的婴儿对照（M=24个月，范围=16-33个月)。使用MB-CDI单词和句子形式评估词汇，词频是根据儿童数据库估计的，并且使用成人对单词在心理上的容易程度的评分来测量可成像性。两组都更有可能知道既频繁又可想象的单词（导致过度累加的相互作用）。单词的知识也受到其所属句法类别的独立影响。采用的学龄前儿童的词汇量受可想象性的影响稍小。这些发现与从MB-CDI正态研究中得出的更大的词汇匹配对照样本进行了比较（M=22个月，范围=16-30个月；33个女孩）。这些结果表明，儿童早期词汇的习得模式主要是由语言知识的积累驱动的。但是词汇也可能受到早期生活经验或概念知识差异的影响。
