Before and after the vocabulary spurt: two modes of word acquisition?

This paper focuses on early lexical development, anti especially the period around 18 months known as the vocabulary spurt. We first propose that this period corresponds to a shift from an associutionist to a referential lexical acquisition mechanism following the developmental coupling of specific pre-linguistic and cognitive abilities, This latter mechanism would allow the acquisition of genuine words, i.e. links between phonetically specified sound patterns and object categories. We then review the literature on early lexical acquisition by typically developing infants and infants with Down anti Williams syndrome, and report some data that were recently collected on this issue. Tie conclude that the dura so far are congruent with our proposal, but because they remain insufficient, we propose some future research that facuses on the relation between pre-linguistic and cognitive developments.