Asymmetries in the Acquisition of Polar Adjectives: Linguistic or C ~ n c e p t u a l ? ~ ROBERTA L. KLATZKY University of California at Santa Barbara EVE V. CLARK^ Stanford University AND MARLYS MACKEN Stanford University This study was designed to determine whether the asymmetry in chil- dren's acquisition of polar adjective pairs is based on linguistic factors related to differences in adult usage and frequency or on an underlying conceptual difference. 24 children, aged 3;7-4;11, took part in a concept- learning task in which nonsense syllables replaced English words for the positive and negative ends of four dimensions: size, height, length, and thickness. The data indicate that the syllables for the negative end of each dimension have a longer learning period and a greater prelearning error rate. These results support the hypothesis that the asymmetry observed in the acquisition of polar adjectives is based on an underlying conceptual asymmetry. In linguistics, it has long been noted (e.g., Bierwisch 1967; Greenberg, 1966; Lyons, 1968; Sapir, 1944; Vendler, 1968) that certain pairs of adjectives are asymmetrical in their uses within the language. The adjec- tive pairs in question are forms such as high-low, long-short, and wide- ' This study was carried out while the first author was a National Science Founda- tion Graduate Fellow at Stanford University, and was supported in part by National Science Foundation Grant GS-30040 to the second author. We would like to thank Gordon H. Bower, Herbert H. Clark, and Edward E. Smith for their comments on an earlier version of this paper. 'Requests for reprints should be sent to: Eve V. Clark, Committee on Lin- guistics, Stanford University, Stanford. Calif., 94305. 32 Copyright @ 1973 by Academic Press, Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.