A Cognitive Model of Semantic Network Learning

Child semantic development includes learning the meaning of words as well as the semantic relations among words. A presumed outcome of semantic develop-ment is the formation of a semantic net-work that reflects this knowledge. We present an algorithm for simultaneously learning word meanings and gradually growing a semantic network, which ad-heres to the cognitive plausibility require-ments of incrementality and limited com-putations. We demonstrate that the seman-tic connections among words in addition to their context is necessary in forming a semantic network that resembles an adult’s semantic knowledge.