Relationship between a child’s age of word acquisition and indicators of category norms: based on the material of the Russian language

Based on the material of Russian-language category norms and normative data on the age of acquisition of words by native speakers of the Russian language, the relationship of the age of acquisition of words with indicators of category norms is investigated. The following results were obtained. (i) The age of acquisition of a category member is negatively associated, and vocabulary frequency is positively associated, with the proportion of respondents who named it and with the proportion of respondents who named it first; this is consistent with the result obtained in the study of Grigoriev, Balyasnikova and Pashneva [2023] on English-language material. (ii) The age of acquisition does not contribute to the prediction of the potency of the category, when of the degree of clustering of the category is controlled for. Perhaps the degree of clustering of a category, reflecting the number and strength of associative links between its members, acts as a mediator in the relationship of the age of acquisition with the potency of the category.