Características espaciales y físicas de los objetos y adquisiciónde los adjetivos tridimensionales

Resum

This study presents a theoretical and experimental review of the theoretical proposal of Carey (1978, 1982) about the acquisition of the meaning of dimensional adjectives. According to this proposal, the child first acquires idiosyncratic meanings, i.e., particular meanings related to the objects to which the dimensional adjectives are applied. As a result, in the first phases of acquisition, the dimensional adjectives could have different meanings for different objectes. However, the experimental support for this theoretical proposal is scarce. A number of procedural problems in some of the studies performed to date raise doubts about the validity of the results. After controlling for these problems, in our experiment we assessed the comprehension of the dimensional adjectives in 50 children aged between 3 and 6 years old. The results obtained refute Carey's theoretical proposal in a general way.