Cultural Infuences on the Developing Semantic Lexicon

To determine whether the developing semantic lexicon varies with culture, we examined the animal and food naming of children from three communities distinguished by language, cultural heritage, and population density. The children were fve- and seven-year-olds from Australia (n = 197), Taiwan (n = 456), and the US (n = 172). Naming patterns revealed hierarchical and fexible organization of the semantic lexicon. The content of the lexicon, particularly food names, varied with cultural heritage. In all three communities, wild mammals were predominant during animal naming, a likely infuence of children's media. The infuence of the Chinese zodiac was evident in the clustering of animal names in the Taiwanese sample. There was no apparent infuence of population density and little infuence of language, except that the Taiwanese children more frequently named foods at the superordinate level, a possible infuence of the structure of Mandarin. Children develop their lexicons in response to culture as experienced frst-hand or through media.