Order of Acquisition in the Lexicon: Implications from Japanese Numeral Classifiers

要旨

This chapter discusses the following problems in the acquisition order of lexical items on the basis of the author research on the child’s acquisition of Japanese numeral classifiers: What determine(s) the order of acquisition in the lexicon?, and What kinds of relationship are there between types of acquisition order and types of lexical domains? In the Japanese classifier system, then, there tend to be a general correlation between frequency and semantic complexity in spite of the textual variation resulting from differences in topic. Frequency of occurrence in the input has often been discussed as a determinant of acquisition order. The notion of mapping complexity differs from the cognitive complexity in that the former is determined by the interaction of the input data and conceptual categories in the child, while the latter does not seem to take the input data into account.

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