Concept Development and the Development of Word Meaning

Historical Trends of Research in Concept Development and the Development of Word Meaning.- 1 General Aspects.- Word Meaning and Word Recognition.- The Acquisition of Word Knowledge: Gradual Learning or Sudden Reorganization?.- Cognitive Development: Schemata, Systems and the Structural Puzzle.- 2 Linguistic and Metalinguistic Perspectives.- Convention and Contrast in Acquiring the Lexicon.- Meaningful or Meaningless: Children's Judgments.- 3 Conceptual Constraints.- Semantic Inferences and the Acquisition of Word Meaning.- Constraints on Word Meaning - Natural Kinds.- 4 An Epistemological Point of View in the Discussion.- Young Children and Social Knowledge.- From "Outer" to "Inner" Reality: On the Meaning of Some Moral Words.- The Conceptual Basis for Language.- 5 Theory and Research on Action Words.- The Early Acquisition and Development of the Meanings of Action-Related Words.- What Do Word Meanings Reveal About Conceptual Development?.- Some Aspects of Verb Meaning.- 6 Theoryand Research on Over-and Underextension.- Extensional Aspects of the Preschool Child's Word Concepts.- 7 Methodological and Theoretical Considerations of Current Research.- Background Knowledge, Presupposition and Canonicality.- Looking to the Future: Theory and Research in Language and Cognitive Development.- How Can We Assess Meaning and Investigate Meaning Development: Theoretical and Methodological Considerations from an Epistemological Point of View.- Author Index.