Comparative Growth of Japanese and North American Cognitive Dictionaries.

In Kyoto, Japan, and in Austin, Texas, complete families with young children participated in a free word association experiment on 2 occasions, 1 year apart. American parents used primarily logical transformations (synonym, contrast, etc.). Japanese parents used mainly iconic transformations (blossom-pretty, black-crow, etc.). But both Japanese and American children initially used primarily enactive transformations (knife-cut, rip-pants, etc.) and developed in opposite directions thereafter. It was concluded that (1) the child's early cognitive dictionary structure is an endogenous creation, not an imitation of the parents' dictionary structure; (2) in children (whether Japanese or North American) an early endogenous principle for organizing lexical entries is "action upon referent," and (3) culture predetermines the operative component (rules) of adult dictionary structures as well as the figurative component (vocabulary). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]