TY - JOUR
T1 - Development of adjective frequencies across semantic classes
T2 - A growth curve analysis of child speech and child-directed speech
AU - Tribushinina, Elena
AU - Van Den Bergh, Huub
AU - Ravid, Dorit
AU - Aksu-Koç, Ayhan
AU - Kilani-Schoch, Marianne
AU - Korecky-Kröll, Katharina
AU - Leibovitch-Cohen, Iris
AU - Laaha, Sabine
AU - Nir, Bracha
AU - Dressler, Wolfgang
AU - Gillis, Steven
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© John Benjamins Publishing Company.
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - This paper is a longitudinal investigation of adjective use by children aged 1;8-2;8, speaking Dutch, German, French, Hebrew, and Turkish, and by their caregivers. Each adjective token in transcripts of spontaneous speech was coded for semantic class. The development of adjective use in each semantic class was analysed by means of a multilevel logistic regression. The results show that toddlers and their parents use adjectives more often as the child grows older. However, this holds only for semantic classes denoting concrete concepts, such as physical properties, colour, and size. Adjectives denoting more abstract properties are barely used by children and parents throughout the first year of adjective acquisition. The correlations between adjective frequencies in child speech and child-directed speech are very strong at the beginning, but decrease with time as the child develops independent adjective use. The composition of early adjective lexicons is very similar in the five languages under study.
AB - This paper is a longitudinal investigation of adjective use by children aged 1;8-2;8, speaking Dutch, German, French, Hebrew, and Turkish, and by their caregivers. Each adjective token in transcripts of spontaneous speech was coded for semantic class. The development of adjective use in each semantic class was analysed by means of a multilevel logistic regression. The results show that toddlers and their parents use adjectives more often as the child grows older. However, this holds only for semantic classes denoting concrete concepts, such as physical properties, colour, and size. Adjectives denoting more abstract properties are barely used by children and parents throughout the first year of adjective acquisition. The correlations between adjective frequencies in child speech and child-directed speech are very strong at the beginning, but decrease with time as the child develops independent adjective use. The composition of early adjective lexicons is very similar in the five languages under study.
KW - Adjective frequencies
KW - Audience design
KW - Cross-linguistic
KW - Order of emergence
KW - Semantic classes
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84919717188&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1075/lia.5.2.02tri
DO - 10.1075/lia.5.2.02tri
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AN - SCOPUS:84919717188
SN - 1879-7865
VL - 5
SP - 185
EP - 226
JO - LIA Language, Interaction and Acquisition
JF - LIA Language, Interaction and Acquisition
IS - 2
ER -