# Early Language Learning via Spreading Activation and Category Exploration in Complex Networks

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.06258 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.06258/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 7 of its 45 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 7 Jul 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 7 of 7)

- [A comparative evaluation and analysis of three generations of Distributional Semantic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.09825/) (2021)
- [Stream Graphs and Link Streams for the Modeling of Interactions over Time](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.04073/) (2017)
- [Multiplex lexical networks reveal patterns in early word acquisition in children](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1609.03207/) (2016)
- [The origins of Zipf's meaning-frequency law](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.00168/) (2017)
- [Feature-rich multiplex lexical networks reveal mental strategies of early language learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.05061/) (2022)
- [SpreadPy: A Python tool for modelling spreading activation and superdiffusion in cognitive multiplex networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.09628/) (2025)
- [The "Small World of Words" German Free-Association Norms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.19620/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Is word acquisition in children uneven with respect to semantic and lexical categories? To answer this question, we model early language learning as a search on a graph-based mental lexicon, driven by two interacting processes: spreading activation and an enforced exploration (rather than exploitation) of lexical categories. We evaluate model performance on four languages (German, English, Dutch, and Rioplatense Spanish), using CDIs as ground-truth data for lexical categories, normative ages derived from the Wordbank repository, and state-of-the-art resources for reconstructing graphs of word similarities. We find that spreading activation outperforms a shortest path baseline in simulating normative word acquisition. At the category level, we highlight complex transitions between CDIs. By studying their sequences in terms of burstiness and average persistence time within the same CDI, we find that spreading activation better captures the exploration dynamics observed empirically. Overall, our findings suggest that vocabulary development can be understood through the non-trivial interplay between activation dynamics and some degree of constraints regulating the visiting of lexical categories in complex networks.