ERIC Number: EJ1018640
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2013-Sep
Pages: 38
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0305-0009
EISSN: N/A
The Relation between Order of Acquisition, Segmental Frequency and Function: The Case of Word-Initial Consonants in Dutch
van Severen, Lieve; Gillis, Joris J. M.; Molemans, Inge; van den Berg, Renate; De Maeyer, Sven; Gillis, Steven
Journal of Child Language, v40 n4 p703-740 Sep 2013
The impact of input frequency (IF) and functional load (FL) of segments in the ambient language on the acquisition order of word-initial consonants is investigated. Several definitions of IF/FL are compared and implemented. The impact of IF/FL and their components are computed using a longitudinal corpus of interactions between thirty Dutch-speaking children (age range: 0 ; 6-2 ; 0) and their primary caretaker(s). The corpus study reveals significant correlations between IF/FL and acquisition order. The highest predictive values are found for the token frequency of segments, and for FL computed on minimally different word types in child-directed speech. Although IF and FL significantly correlate, they do have a different impact on the order of acquisition of word-initial consonants. When the impact of IF is partialed out, FL still has a significant correlation with acquisition order. The reverse is not true, suggesting that the acquisition of word-initial consonants is mainly influenced by their discriminating function.
Descriptors: Indo European Languages, Linguistic Input, Language Acquisition, Computational Linguistics, Child Language, Correlation, Phonemes, Prediction, Comparative Analysis, Infants, Toddlers, Parent Child Relationship
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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Authoring Institution: N/A
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