word production and comprehension

[Lois Bloom]

Dear Kasumi,

Katherine has given you a fine list of references.  She is quite right;
comprehension is a complex concept.  From late in the first year until
well into the third year, children often recognize words they do not yet
understand, and say many words they have familiarity with but do not fully
comprehend.  The dimensions of comprehension are many: knowing a word's
meaning in the cognitive sense of understanding is accompanied by social
understanding and its cultural significance.  Many words have an emotional
valence as well.  Just think about the many dimensions (cognitive, social,
cultural, emotional, biological) of the meaning of "mother" -- arguably
the word most frequent in children's vocabularies world-wide.

You might also consult:

Bloom, L. (1974). Talking, understanding, and thinking: Developmental
relationship between receptive and expressive language.  In R.
Schiefelbusch & L. Lloyd (Eds.), Language perspectives: Acquisition,
retardation, and intervention. Baltimore MD: University Park Press.

Bloom, L., Tinker, E., & Margulis, C. (1994). The words children learn:
Evidence against a noun bias in children's vocabularies. Cognitive
Development, 8, 431-450.

Golinkoff, R., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Bloom. L., Smith, L., Woodward, A.,
Akhtar, N., Tomasello, M. , & Hollich, G. (2000), Becoming a word learner:
A debate on lexical acquisition. NY: Oxford University Press.

Good luck,

Lois Bloom