Naming the Living Things: Linguistic, Experiential and Cultural Factors in Wichí and Spanish Speaking Children

Abstract

This work focuses on the underlying conceptual structure of children's category of liv ing things from a cross-cultural, cross-linguistic perspective. School-aged children (n = 129) from three Argentinean communities (rural Wichi-speaking, rural Spanish speaking, urban Spanish-speaking) were asked to generate the names of living things. Analyses were focused on the typicality, semantic organization, and hierarchical level of the names mentioned. We identified convergences among the names generated by children in all three communities, as well as key differences: the typicality, habitats and hierarchical level of the categories mentioned varied as a function of children's language and their direct experience with the natural world. These findings provide evidence concerning the role of language, culture and experience in shaping children's folkbiological concepts.

Plant Yourself Where Language Blooms: Direct Experience of Nature Changes How Parents and Children Talk about Nature

“…conceptual and perceptual distinctions encoded in their language (e.g., Bowerman 1996;Rosch 1973). Not surprisingly, researchers have thus argued that children's knowledge and use of nature terms are inextricably linked to their perception and appreciation of the natural world (e.g., Balmford et al, 2002;Lindemann-Matthies, 2005;Taverna, Waxman, Medin, Moscoloni, & Peralta, 2014). In short, people care more and pay more attention to the things they can label and that are labeled by others than to things that go unlabeled in the language.…”

Cultural influences on the developing semantic lexicon

“…Unlike Winkler-Rhoades et al (2010) and Taverna et al (2014), we also elicited semantic fluency responses to the category food. Mealtimes have been the focus of much research on event-based language learning (e.g., Beals, 1997;Hoff & Naigles, 2002;Snow & Beals, 2006).…”

“…Developmentally, younger children had more contact with non-native species because children's books and movies, many of which feature exotic animal characters, were common experiences for them. Taverna et al (2014) asked Argentine children aged five to fourteen to name living things. All children named more animals than plants, and mammals were the predominant type of animal.…”

“…In contrast, the particular communities we sampled in Australian and Taiwan are more similar to each other in population density than either of these are to the US community we sampled. Thus, a triangulation strategy (Ross, Medin, Coley, & Atran, 2003;Taverna et al, 2014) allowed conclusions about the relative contribution of cultural systems and daily activities to the children's semantic lexicons.…”

The reliance on inclusive living thing in inductive inference among 5-year-olds: the role of access to nature and the size of receptive vocabulary

“…There is also some data showing variability in the development of representation of living things. The inclusion of plants within living things has been shown to vary depending on language and culture (Anggoro, Waxman, & Medin, 2008;Hatano et al, 1993;Taverna et al, 2014).…”