ISSN : 1229-0718
This study attempts to explore two issues regarding the acquisition of word meaning. One concerns the role of ontological category concepts (e.g., solid objects or non-solid substances) in the acquisition of nouns from the cross-linguistic point of view. The other concerns children's sensitivity to grammatical distinction between nouns and adjectives in extracting a novel word's meaning. The results, in general, show that 3-and 5-year-old Korean children reveal a strong shape bias m interpreting the novel nouns, even 'though there exist a slight difference between a solid object and a non-solid substance trial. These findings support the view that syntactic aspects and cognition may interact in the early stage of language learning. Furthermore, this shape bias is specific to nouns but not to adjectives, since it seems to be significantly diminished in children's interpretation of the adjectives