TY - JOUR
AU - Heyman, Gail D.
AB - This article examines how language affects children's inferences about novel social categories. We hypothesized that lexicalization (using a noun label to refer to someone who possesses a certain property) would influence children's inferences about other people. Specifically, we hypothesized that when a property is lexicalized, it is thought to be more stable over time and over contexts. One hundred fifteen children (5- and 7-year-olds) learned about a characteristic of a hypothetical person (e.g., “Rose eats a lot of carrots”). Half the children were told a noun label for each character (e.g., “She is a carrot-eater”), whereas half heard a verbal predicate (e.g., “She eats carrots whenever she can”). The children judged characteristics as significantly more stable over time and over contexts when the characteristics were referred to by a noun than when they were referred to by a verbal predicate. Lexicalization (in the form of a noun) provides important information to children regarding the stability of personal characteristics.
TI - Carrot-Eaters and Creature-Believers: The Effects of Lexicalization on Children's Inferences About Social Categories
JF - Psychological Science
DO - 10.1111/1467-9280.00194
DA - 1999-11-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/sage/carrot-eaters-and-creature-believers-the-effects-of-lexicalization-on-5Gml1EG9rw
SP - 489
EP - 493
VL - 10
IS - 6
DP - DeepDyve
ER -