Bierwisch's analysis as a test of the SFH

Abstract

ABSTRACTThere has been continuing interest in the Semantic Feature Hypothesis (SFH) over the last ten years but there appears to have been no experimental study which explores a complete semantic field nor one which uses a cross-cultural sample. Eighty New Zealand children, Maori and non-Maori, aged between 4; 0 and 4; 11, were tested for word recognition of the spatial adjectives following Bierwisch's (1967) componential analysis. The study extended previous work on the SFH by comparing performance on feature recognition, and by examining effect of word context on ease of discrimination. Results supported the view that word meaning is learned in bits, but failed to support any other predictions based on SFH. There was difference between the samples in performance on word recognition but no difference on features. It is suggested that more attention should be given to the characteristics of individual words as agents for the acquisition of other words.