Vocabulary Development: A Morphological Analysis

This monograph studies research conducted for the purpose of investigating the growth of recognition vocabulary during the early and middle elementary school years in relation to the development of morphological knowledge. The children were tested on a selection of main entry words from a recent unabridged nonhistorical dictionary by means of definition, sentence, and multiple–choice questions. The focus of the present study, however, was on the contribution made by different morphologically defined word types and by knowledge of morphology and word formation to total recognition vocabulary at different age and grade levels. The findings suggest that lexical development can be characterized in terms of increasing morphological complexity. Further, it was found that the proportion of known complex words for which there was evidence that children figured them out by analyzing their morphological structure increased with age and grade.

Abstract. I. Introduction. II. Estimating Children’s Vocabulary Knowledge. III. Morphological Development. IV. Constructing a Basis for Estimating Vocabulary Knowledge. V. A Study of Vocabulary Development in Elementary School Children. VI. Distinguishing Potentially Knowable Words from Psychologically Basic Vocabulary. VII. Vocabulary Development and the Growth of Morphological Knowledge. Appendix: The 196 Words on which Children were Tested, with Comments on their Morphological Classifications. References. Acknowledgments. Commentary: On Anglin’s Analysis of Vocabulary Growth: George A. Miller and Pamela C. Wakefield. Reply: Knowing Versus Learning Words: Jeremy M. Anglin. Contributors. Statement of Editorial Policy.

Jeremy M. Anglin received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1970. He is associate professor of psychology and currently the chair of the Developmental Psychology Division at the University of Waterloo. His research interests include language acquisition and cognitive development. Several of his recent studies have focused on lexical, semantic, and conceptual development during childhood. He has previously been a consulting editor for the Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development and has served on the editorial board of Child Development . He is the author of The Growth of Word Meaning and of Word, Object, and Conceptual Development and the editor of Beyond the Information Given: Studies in the Psychology of Knowing. George A. Miller received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1946. He is a cognitive psychologist at Princeton University. Pamela C. Wakefield received her B.S. from Upsala College in 1982. She is a member of the research staff at Princeton University.