Lexical segmentation and vocabulary growth in early language acquisition

1993 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Plunkett
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Speech Signal ◽  
Vocabulary Development ◽  
Language Learner ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Vocabulary Growth ◽  
Lexical Segmentation ◽  
Mean Length Of Utterance ◽  
Segmentation Problem

ABSTRACTThe identification of appropriate lexical segmentations of the speech signal constitutes a problem for the language learner and the child language researcher alike. Articulatory precision and fluency criteria for identifying formulaic expressions, sub-lexical forms and target lexemes in linguistic productions are defined and applied to the analysis of two Danish children's language development between the ages of 1;0 and 2;0. The results of this analysis are compared to the results of applying standard distributional and frequency criteria in the tabulation of mean length of utterance and vocabulary profiles for both standard and nonstandard lexical segmentations. It is argued that although the two methods yield converging profiles of development during the latter part of the period studied, articulatory precision and fluency criteria offer a more powerful tool for identifying alternative segmentation strategies in early language acquisition. Profiles of vocabulary development for these two children suggest that the solution to the segmentation problem may be an important trigger for their vocabulary spurts.

scholarly journals How arbitrary is language?

2014 ◽  
Vol 369 (1651) ◽  
pp. 20130299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Padraic Monaghan ◽  
Richard C. Shillcock ◽  
Morten H. Christiansen ◽  
Simon Kirby
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Vocabulary Development ◽  
Corpus Analysis ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
Early Language Development ◽  
The Relationship

It is a long established convention that the relationship between sounds and meanings of words is essentially arbitrary—typically the sound of a word gives no hint of its meaning. However, there are numerous reported instances of systematic sound–meaning mappings in language, and this systematicity has been claimed to be important for early language development. In a large-scale corpus analysis of English, we show that sound–meaning mappings are more systematic than would be expected by chance. Furthermore, this systematicity is more pronounced for words involved in the early stages of language acquisition and reduces in later vocabulary development. We propose that the vocabulary is structured to enable systematicity in early language learning to promote language acquisition, while also incorporating arbitrariness for later language in order to facilitate communicative expressivity and efficiency.

Individual differences in early vocabulary development: redefining the referential-expressive distinction

1992 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena V. M. Lieven ◽  
Julian M. Pine ◽  
Helen Dresner Barnes
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Relative Proportion ◽  
Vocabulary Development ◽  
Alternative Route ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Simple Scheme ◽  
Stylistic Variation ◽  
Early Language Development

ABSTRACTThe existence of stylistic variation between children in the early stages of language acquisition has been most frequently studied using Nelson's 0973) referential—expressive distinction. While the use of this distinction has generated a great deal of interesting research, there are a number of major problems associated with it. The present study presents a simple scheme, based on formal categories, for coding stylistic variation in the early lexicon. When applied to the first 50 and 100 words of 12 children collected between 0; 11 and 2; 3, the major dimensions of difference are found to be the relative proportion of common nouns and the relative proportion of frozen phrases. Moreover, the proportion of frozen phrases is also found to be significantly positively related to children's early productivity, suggesting that, rather than being a ‘deadend’ in early language development, the acquisition of frozen phrases may provide an alternative route into multiword speech.

Wordbank: an open repository for developmental vocabulary data

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 677-694 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHAEL C. FRANK ◽  
MIKA BRAGINSKY ◽  
DANIEL YUROVSKY ◽  
VIRGINIA A. MARCHMAN
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Software Package ◽  
Vocabulary Development ◽  
Data Gathering ◽  
Parent Report ◽  
Web Interface ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Interactive Exploration ◽  
Communicative Development ◽  
Vocabulary Growth

AbstractThe MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDIs) are a widely used family of parent-report instruments for easy and inexpensive data-gathering about early language acquisition. CDI data have been used to explore a variety of theoretically important topics, but, with few exceptions, researchers have had to rely on data collected in their own lab. In this paper, we remedy this issue by presenting Wordbank, a structured database of CDI data combined with a browsable web interface. Wordbank archives CDI data across languages and labs, providing a resource for researchers interested in early language, as well as a platform for novel analyses. The site allows interactive exploration of patterns of vocabulary growth at the level of both individual children and particular words. We also introduce wordbankr, a software package for connecting to the database directly. Together, these tools extend the abilities of students and researchers to explore quantitative trends in vocabulary development.

Preverbal infants experience sound-shape correspondences

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (0) ◽  
pp. 204
Author(s):  
Alan M. Slater ◽  
Dina Lew ◽  
Gavin Bremner ◽  
Peter Walker
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Perceptual Learning ◽  
Important Case ◽  
Object Naming ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Early Language Development ◽  
Crossmodal Associations ◽  
Preverbal Infants ◽  
Familiar Objects

One of the most important crossmodal associations is between vision and sound, and we know that such bimodal information is of great importance in perceptual learning. Many crossmodal relationships are non-arbitrary or ‘natural’, and a particularly important case is object naming. While many object-name relationships are arbitrary, others are not. The clearest examples are known as onomatopoeia — the cuckoo and the kittiwake are named after the sounds they make. And a striking demonstration that such effects extend beyond onomatopoeic naming of familiar objects concerns shapes. When adults are shown two shapes, one angular and one with rounded contours, and given the words ‘Takete’ and ‘Maluma’ they will invariably associate ‘Takete’ with the angular shape, and ‘Maluma’ with the rounded shape. This effect was first described by Kohler in 1947, and there have been recent demonstrations of the effect with adults and young (3-year-old) children. Several researchers have suggested that these non-arbitrary associations may be of great importance in that they may influence and ‘bootstrap’ the infant’s early language development, particularly the learning of words for objects. If this is so, such associations should be present prior to language acquisition, and we describe three experiments which demonstrate such relationships in preverbal, 3–5-month-old infants, using random shapes, such as those in the figure, and angular and rounded face-like stimuli.

scholarly journals COVID-19 first lockdown as a unique window into language acquisition: What you do (with your child) matters.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Kartushina ◽  
Nivedita Mani ◽  
ASLI AKTAN-ERCIYES ◽  
Khadeejah Alaslani ◽  
Naomi Aldrich ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Learning Environments ◽  
Normative Data ◽  
Vocabulary Development ◽  
Limited Access ◽  
Daycare Centers ◽  
Child Interaction ◽  
External Sources ◽  
At Home

The COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting closure of daycare centers worldwide, led to unprecedented changes in children’s learning environments. This period of increased time at home with caregivers, with limited access to external sources (e.g., daycares) provides a unique opportunity to examine the associations between the caregiver-child activities and children’s language development. The vocabularies of 1742 children aged 8-36 months across 13 countries and 12 languages were evaluated at the beginning and end of the first lockdown period in their respective countries (from March to September 2020). Children who had less passive screen exposure and whose caregivers read more to them showed larger gains in vocabulary development during lockdown, after controlling for SES and other caregiver-child activities. Children also gained more words than expected (based on normative data) during lockdown; either caregivers were more aware of their child’s development or vocabulary development benefited from intense caregiver-child interaction during lockdown.

scholarly journals Using MLU to study early language development in English

2010 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roma Wieczorek
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Control Child ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Impaired Child ◽  
Language Impaired ◽  
Early Language Development ◽  
Basic Language ◽  
Linguistic Analyses ◽  
Mean Length Of Utterance

Using MLU to study early language development in English The study examines the parameter of Mean Length of Utterance (MLU), measured both in morphemes (MLUm) and words (MLUw), in early language development in the case of two English children matched for age. The MLU scores of a normally developing child were compared to the MLU results of a language-impaired child in a longitudinal study. Moreover, the reliability of the MLU index measured in words was also tested in both children. The MLU analysis was based on the CHILDES database and CLAN programme, where the transcripts of spontaneous speech samples are used to calculate basic language parameters at different age-points. The findings of this study indicate that despite the expected delay, the language-impaired child followed a similar route of language development as the control child. However, significant differences between MLUw and MLUm confirmed that the parameters performed two different linguistic analyses.

scholarly journals SCALa: A blueprint for computational models of language acquisition in social context

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sho Tsuji ◽  
Alejandrina Cristia ◽  
Emmanuel Dupoux
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Language Learner ◽  
Early Language ◽  
The Social

Theories and data on language acquisition suggest a range of cues are used, ranging from information on structure found in the linguistic signal itself, to information gleaned from the environmental context or through social interaction. We propose a blueprint for computational models of the early language learner (SCALa, for Socio-Computational Architecture of Language Acquisition) that makes explicit the connection between the kinds of information available to the social learner and the computational mechanisms required to extract language-relevant information and learn from it. SCALa integrates a range of views on language acquisition, further allowing us to make precise recommendations for future large-scale empirical research.

scholarly journals Nonlinear development of speaking rate in child-directed speech

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Eon-Suk Ko
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Speaking Rate ◽  
Parallel Analysis ◽  
Nonlinear Development ◽  
Mother And Child ◽  
Child Speech ◽  
Parallel Pattern ◽  
Mean Length Of Utterance

The current study investigated if the speaking rate in Child-Directed Speech (CDS) changes over the course of child language development, and, if so, what the nature of that change is. The developmental path of CDS speaking rate was analyzed in 25 mother-child pairs from longitudinal corpora in CHILDES database. The results were then compared with the developmental pattern of speaking rate in child-produced speech. A parallel analysis was made on the development of mean length of utterance (MLU) in mother and child. The findings suggest that CDS speaking rate dynamically changes with shifts occurring around the onset of child speech production and again during the multiword stage. A parallel pattern of nonlinearity was also observed in the speaking rate of the child and the MLU of both mother and child. Phonological precision effects in CDS (e.g. exaggerated VOT) are explained as a by-product of varying speaking rate. Implications of the findings for studies of language acquisition are discussed.

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