Colloquium - Jenny Saffran, PhD

Date: 

Wednesday, November 2, 2016, 4:00pm to 5:00pm

Location: 

William James Hall - Room 1, Basement Auditorium

Jenny Saffran, PhD

 Professor of Psychology

University of Wisconsin - Madison

https://www.waisman.wisc.edu/pi-Saffran-Jenny.htm

Topic : Building a lexicon

  Abstract: 

Words are bundles of meanings and sounds (or signs). As mature language users, we have sophisticated knowledge about how words work, both on their own and as part of a lexicon. How does that knowledge emerge? In my talk, I will consider recent work focused on how infants and toddlers discover the forms of words, construe the meanings of words, and integrate words into their nascent semantic networks. I’ll conclude by considering some of the factors that may drive infants to learn complex systems like human languages.