The seminar will treat various linguistic and cognitive aspects of word learning at different stages of human development from early infancy to adulthood. Word learning is one of the central processes in language acquisition and provides the basis for constructing sentences and entering into discourse. Which external cues allow us to extract word form and meaning? What kind of cognitive abilities and constraints scaffold the first steps of word acquisition? We will discuss papers from the theoretical field as well as empirical studies in order to develop a firm basis to discuss these questions.
ETCS credits will be earned via an oral presentation and short essays during the term. |