2002: R. Jackendoff

2001: T. Deacon

2000: S. Palmer

1999: M. Posner

1998: M. Bowerman

1997: R. Schank

1996: J. Bruner

1995: D. Dennett

1994: N. Chomski

• April 8, 1998: "Constructing Spatial Semantic Categories: A Crosslinguistic Perspective"
  
  and
   
• April 9, 1998:  "Where do children's early word meanings come from?"

"Constructing Spatial Semantic Categories:
a Crosslinguistic Perspective"

Every day we talk about spatial situations and events with basic words like IN, OUT, ON, OFF, UP, DOWN, FALL, OPEN, BREAK, and HANG. Where do the meanings of these words come from? Traditionally, it has been assumed that the meanings reflect nonlinguistic spatial conceptualization quite directly. But more recent research, with a wider crosslinguistic base, suggests that the meanings are at least in part linguistic constructions -- a way of organizing space for purposes of talking about it. In this talk I will present evidence that children begin to construct language-specific spatial categories very early. The data to be examined will complement the material to be discussed in my organization of space in the input language affects the construction process; for example, what is the role of category size and of polysemy? Is there linguistic evidence for "natural" gradients of similarity among spatial situations, and are children sensitive to these gradients?

All are invited to attend
Refreshments will be

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"Where do children's early word meanings come from?"

Semantic development is often viewed as a process of mapping between linguistic forms encountered in the speech input and concepts established through universally shared patterns of cognitive development; e.g., children learn the word IN to express a fundamental spatial notion of "containment". This characterization is challenged by recent crosslinguistic research. Evidence will be presented that languages differ strikingly in their semantic structuring of even such basic conceptual domains as space, and that children begin to home in on language-specific classification principles remarkably early, by two years of age or before. But if children's early word meanings are not completely nonlinguistic, nor are they completely shaped by language -- there is a complex interaction between the influence of the input language and learners' nonlinguistic conceptual predispositions. Mechanisms that might underlie this interaction will be considered.

Melissa Bowerman has researched and published widely on topics in first language acquisition ranging from syntax and morphology to word meaning and phonology. Recurrent themes in her work include the relationship between conceptual development and language development, the use of crosslinguistic comparisons to disentangle what is universal and possibly innate from what is learned, the nature of children's early linguistic rules, and the potential of information about language acquisition to help decide among alternative theoretical approaches to language structure. Her most recent work focuses on the acquisition of argument structure alternations, and on the classification of topological spatial relationships by languages and by language learners.

All are invited to attend

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