What not to swear: how do children learn bad words?

Children begin producing taboo words as early as ages one or two years old and produce them at a steady rate until the teenage years. However, little is known about how children acquire taboo words and whether the acquisition of taboo words is similar to the acquisition of other types of words. The current study explores the differences in how children acquire a novel taboo word compared to a novel object word. Three- to 8-year-olds (N=97) saw a short video featuring nonsense words that were framed as either novel object words or novel taboo words. Children identified the nature of the word (i.e., good/bad, right/wrong), reproduced the word, identified the original source of the word, and made several additional judgements about that source. Participants also completed the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) as a measure of receptive vocabulary. Results revealed both older and younger children learn taboo words, but only younger children did so at rate greater than object words. Additionally, taboo words were the only word type not related to increases in vocabulary size.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Alabama Libraries

Year dc:date.issued

2016

Author dc:creator

• Savage, Shakira Desiree

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Scofield, Jason M.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Totenhagen, Casey
• McDaniel, Sara

• Developmental psychology
• Early childhood education

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Language dc:language.iso

en_US, English

Dc Identifier Other

u0015_0000001_0002537
Savage_alatus_0004M_12965

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ir.ua.edu:123456789/2808