Mothers' use of superordinate category terms

Abstract

Mothers' speech in an identification task was examined for ten mother–child pairs in which the child's age varied from 1; 9 to 4; 9. Stimuli were used from three domains, animals, clothes and furniture. These varied in familiarity, centrality (goodness of exemplar) and number of items. Basic-level category terms were found to be the most frequently used labels. Superordinate category terms were elicited by (a) an unfamiliar animal and (b) groups of items from the same domain. Information on category relations was provided in several ways: alternative labels, multiple labels and explicit statements of inclusion. Competencies required to learn the correct referent for category terms and differences among superordinate categories are discussed.