The Relationship Between Maternal Input, Culture, and the Strength of Noun Bias in Palestinian-Arabic-Learning Infants

Noun bias is the tendency to acquire nouns earlier than other syntactic categories. Whether it is universal or language and culture dependent is debated. We investigated noun bias in the receptive lexicon of Palestinian-Arabic-learning infants and examined whether maternal input and cultural values are related to lexicon composition beyond the language's structural properties.Thirty-one infants (16-24 months) completed a Computerized Comprehension Task in Palestinian Arabic, and mothers described picture narratives to their children, and completed demographic and cultural values questionnaires. Results showed a noun bias in infants’ receptive lexicon. While no significant correlation was found between maternal noun usage and infants’ noun bias, higher verb usage significantly correlated with reduced noun bias. Neither maternal education nor cultural values significantly predicted maternal input composition. These findings suggest that while noun bias exists in Palestinian Arabic, exposure to verbs may moderate it, highlighting the complex interplay between language structure, input, and early lexical development.