TY - JOUR A1 - Große, Gerlind A1 - Streubel, Berit A1 - Gunzenhauser, Catherine A1 - Saalbach, Henrik T1 - Let’s Talk About Emotions T2 - Affective Science N2 - Learning to use language in an adult-like way is a long-lasting process. This may particularly apply to complex conceptual domains such as emotions. The present study examined children’s and adults’ patterns of emotion word usage regarding their convergence and underlying semantic dimensions, and the factors influencing the ease of emotion word learning. We assessed the production of emotion words by 4- to 11-year-old children (N = 123) and 27 adults (M = 37 years) using a vignette test. We found that the older the children, the more emotion words they produced. Moreover, with increasing age, children’s pattern of emotion word usage converged with adult usage. The analysis for semantic dimensions revealed one clear criterion—the differentiation of positive versus negative emotions—for all children and adults. We further found that broad covering emotion words are produced earlier and in a more adult-like way. KW - Kleinkind KW - Kind KW - Semantik KW - Verbales Gedächtnis KW - Gefühlsausdruck KW - Faktorieller Survey Y1 - 2021 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-fhpotsdam/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2568 SN - 2662-205X VL - 2 IS - 2 SP - 150 EP - 162 PB - Springer CY - Cham ER -