Many words carry multiple distinct but related senses. For example, a producer's name (eg,
Picasso) can be metonymically extended to label products (eg, Picasso's paintings) but
rarely refer to other associated items (eg, Picasso's paintbrushes). We test whether item-
based linguistic experience is necessary for children's acquisition of semantic
generalizations. In Experiment 1, we present 4-to 5-year-olds, 8-to 9-year-olds, and adults
with scenarios involving novel and conventional artists' names (eg, Dax or Picasso) and a …