What is the relationship between vocabulary size and syntactic development?

What is the relationship between vocabulary size and syntactic development?

• A. Syntactic development lags vocabulary by two years
• B. Syntactic development predicts vocab size
• C. Vocab size predicts syntactic development
• D. They are independent

Answer: (C)

Growing vocabulary supplies the material and cues children need to figure out grammar. When a child knows more words, they encounter more varied sentence patterns and verb frames, which helps them infer how words combine and where to place elements like objects, clauses, and adjectives. This process, often described as lexical bootstrapping, uses semantic knowledge to support syntactic learning. As vocabulary expands, children can form longer, more complex sentences and generalize grammar rules across different words and contexts, so vocabulary size becomes a predictor of how syntactic abilities develop. The idea that syntax leads vocabulary is less supported in early development, and the two are not independent—their growth is linked, with lexical growth driving earlier syntactic gains.

Growing vocabulary supplies the material and cues children need to figure out grammar. When a child knows more words, they encounter more varied sentence patterns and verb frames, which helps them infer how words combine and where to place elements like objects, clauses, and adjectives. This process, often described as lexical bootstrapping, uses semantic knowledge to support syntactic learning. As vocabulary expands, children can form longer, more complex sentences and generalize grammar rules across different words and contexts, so vocabulary size becomes a predictor of how syntactic abilities develop. The idea that syntax leads vocabulary is less supported in early development, and the two are not independent—their growth is linked, with lexical growth driving earlier syntactic gains.