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- Title
Preschoolers and adults metonymically extend proper names to owned objects.
- Authors
Zhu, Rebecca; Gopnik, Alison
- Abstract
Three preregistered experiments, conducted in 2021, investigated whether English‐speaking American preschoolers (N = 120; 4–6 years; 54 females, predominantly White) and adults (N = 80; 18–52 years; 59 females, predominantly Asian) metonymically extend owners' names to owned objects—an extension not typically found in English. In Experiment 1, 5‐ and 6‐year‐olds and adults extended names to owned objects over duplicates (d = 0.34 in children; d = 1.13 in adults). In Experiment 2, 5‐ and 6‐year‐olds and adults extended names to owned over borrowed objects (d = 1.37 in children; d = 4.34 in adults). Experiment 3 replicated this finding with 4‐year‐olds (d = 0.43). Thus, English‐speaking preschoolers can acquire semantic generalizations, even those not present in their language.
- Subjects
NAMES; PROPERTY; METONYMS; PRESCHOOL children; SEMANTICS; ENGLISH language; ADULTS
- Publication
Child Development, 2024, Vol 95, Issue 1, p177
- ISSN
0009-3920
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/cdev.13999