Rozwijanie słownictwa u dzieci w wieku przedszkolnym z zaburzeniami ekspresji werbalnej. Problemy teoretyczne

Developing Vocabulary in Pre-school Children with Impaired Verbal Expression. Theoretical ProblemsThe article deals with theoretical problems related to vocabulary development in preschool children with impaired verbal expression. The authoress underlines the significance of the issue, resulting from the role of vocabulary in social, educational and cultural development. She attempts to characterize language competences at the semantic and lexical levels. To this end, she refers to existing speech development studies on child’s vocabulary, then proceeds to discussing the two basic dimensions of child’s vocabulary – quantitative and qualitative – and highlights the importance of both. She places emphasis on examining the qualitative aspect. Therefore, in the light of selected linguistic theories, she examines the notions of: language sign, basic and metaphorical meanings, cognitive definition. She also refers to the concept of semantic categories and parts of speech, addresses the issues of semantic communication, pragmatics and metalinguistic reflection. The aforementioned linguistic phenomena are confronted with examples of possible disorders.Key words: vocabulary, child speech development, quantitative aspect, qualitative aspect, linguistic sign, meaning, cognitive definition, semantic categories, speech parts, semantic connectivity, pragmatics, metalanguage