Snape, SimonKrott, Andrea2021-03-182021-03-182021-02-15Snape, S. & Krott, A. (2021). The challenge of relational referents in early word extensions: Evidence from noun-noun compounds. Journal of Child Language, 49(1), 131 - 163. https://doi.org/10.1017/S03050009200007930305-000910.1017/S0305000920000793http://hdl.handle.net/10034/624361Young children struggle more with mapping novel words onto relational referents (e.g., verbs) compared to non-relational referents (e.g., nouns). We present further evidence for this notion by investigating children’s extensions of noun-noun compounds, which map onto combinations of non-relational referents, i.e. objects (e.g., baby and bottle for baby bottle), and relations (e.g., a bottle FOR babies). We tested two- to five-year-olds’ and adults’ generalisations of novel compounds composed of novel (e.g., kig donka) or familiar (e.g., star hat) nouns that were combined by one of two relations (e.g., donka that has a kig attached (=attachment relation) versus donka that stores a kig (=function relation)). Participants chose between a relational (shared relation) and a non-relational (same colour) match. Results showed a developmental shift from encoding non-relational aspects (colour) towards relations of compound referents, supporting the challenge of relational word referents. Also, attachment relations were more frequently encoded than function relations.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Noun-noun compoundsCompound-nounsRelational word referentsRelational shiftArticle1469-7602Journal of Child Language