Infants' understanding of words as conventions

描述（由申请人提供）：语言是一种传统的系统，在一个社区中所有的说话者都使用它来传达相同的意思，这是我们作为沟通者成功的基础，也是学习语言的基础。拟议的研究将调查在获得第一个单词的时期，传统的关键方面的起源。首先，这些研究将提供一些初步的实验工作，调查婴儿何时识别语言中的惯例。其次，本研究将通过比较词语的使用和其他类型的人类行为来检验婴儿假设的普遍性。第三，通过测试婴儿对新引入单词的理解，该项目将评估婴儿对传统的理解对单词学习的贡献程度。最后，由于提出的实验区分了常规的不同方面，因此该项目将为当前对该主题的思考带来更大的准确性。拟议的研究旨在为传统知识的三个方面提供初步优势：(1)知道所有说话者（在一个社区内）使用相同的形式-意义配对；(2)知道这些配对形成了一个对比系统；(3)知道传统的系统原则上会因说话者而异。除了为进一步的研究提供基础外，这些研究还将为早期语言学习的一般过程提供新的线索。因此，这些发现可能有助于科学和专业知识的发展出现问题的情况下，例如，在语言迟缓的情况下，或更多的全球交流缺陷，如自闭症。此外，由于这些研究关注的是语言社区共享的系统知识的发展，这些发现可能最终有助于我们对多语种语言发展的理解。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The fact that language is a conventional system, used by all speakers in a community to convey the same meanings, underlies our success as communicators and provides the basis for acquiring language. The proposed research will investigate the origins of key aspects of conventionality during the period in which the first words are acquired. First, these studies will provide some of the first experimental work investigating when infants recognize conventionality in language. Second, this research will examine the generality of infants' assumptions by comparing word use to other types of human action. Third, by testing infants' understanding of newly introduced words, the project will assess the degree to which infants' understanding of conventionality contributes to word learning. Finally, because the proposed experiments distinguish between different aspects of conventionality, the project will bring greater precision to current thinking on this topic. The proposed studies are intended to provide initial vantage points into 3 aspects of conventional knowledge: (1) Knowing that all speakers (within a community) use the same form-meaning pairings; (2) Knowing that these pairings form a contrastive system; and (3) Knowing that conventional systems can, in principle, vary across speakers. In addition to providing a foundation for further investigations, these studies will shed new light on general processes in early language learning. As such, the findings may contribute to scientific and professional knowledge about cases in which development goes awry, for example, in cases of language delay, or more global communicative deficits such as those present in autism. In addition, because these studies concern the development of knowledge about the systems shared by language communities, the findings may ultimately contribute to our understanding of multi-lingual language development.