When is a word not a word?

[Alcock, Katherine]

I am attempting to analyse CDI data from the two East African languages we are working on.  On the English version of the CDI there are several instances of words were either the same phonological form (if I remember correctly there is swing as a noun and as a verb) or even the same concept (water in food and drinks and water in outdoor things) occurs in different sections, and appears to be counted twice.
 
Do people feel this is a helpful principle for such instruments? Has this principle been followed through to other languages? Do people feel parents are able to distinguish between the different uses of the same words?
 
We have a duplication between noises and other uses of the same word in these two languages.  Cats are called "nyau", and you will find this name for a cat in the dictionary.  Many children, including older children, will call goats "mee".  And parents say "sweet, sweet" when they want a child to eat so "sweet, sweet" (tamu-tamu) is the equivalent of "yum, yum": but "sweet" (tamu) is also a word that parents say children know.
 
I'm not entirely sure whether to count these both as words children know a) for purposes of total vocabulary, for an individual child b) conceptually, when examining what children as a group know by a certain age.  It seems as if use of the CDI in English implies a) is done, since the words are present as far as I can see; but I'm not sure about b), and both forms of these words seem to appear very early for these children.
 
Summary will be posted as normal!
 
Thanks very much
 
Katie Alcock
 
 
 
Katie Alcock, DPhil
Lecturer
Department of Psychology
University of Lancaster
Fylde College
Lancaster LA1 5EB
UK