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When less is more: Evidence from Korean-learning children's verb acquisition
Angela Xiaoxue He1, Hyun-Joo Song2, Kyong-Sun Jin3
1Department of English Language and Literature, https://ror.org/0145fw131Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China.
Journal of Child Language
|November 4, 2025
Summary
Children learning new verbs find it harder when given extra details about the subject. This study shows that less linguistic information can be more beneficial for verb acquisition in preschoolers.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Linguistics
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Linguistic context aids children's acquisition of novel verbs.
- Previous research suggests modified subjects may increase processing load, hindering learning.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if Korean-learning preschoolers experience similar difficulties with modified subjects during verb learning.
- To examine the cross-linguistic validity of the "less is more" hypothesis in early language acquisition.
Main Methods:
- Korean-learning preschoolers were presented with novel verbs in sentences with both unmodified and modified subjects.
- Performance was assessed across three distinct situational contexts to evaluate learning outcomes.
Main Results:
- Preschoolers learning Korean showed difficulty processing novel verbs when subjects were modified compared to unmodified.
- This learning difficulty persisted across various contexts, even when modified subjects were informative.
Conclusions:
- Findings support prior English-based research, indicating that reduced linguistic complexity aids verb learning in young children.
- The results provide cross-linguistic evidence for the principle that less information can be more beneficial for language acquisition.
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