ERIC Number: EJ1184824
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018
Pages: 21
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0009-3920
EISSN: N/A
Quantitative Linguistic Predictors of Infants' Learning of Specific English Words
Swingley, Daniel; Humphrey, Colman
Child Development, v89 n4 p1247-1267 Jul-Aug 2018
To evaluate which features of spoken language aid infant word learning, a corpus of infant-directed speech (M. R. Brent & J. M. Siskind, 2001) was characterized on several linguistic dimensions and statistically related to the infants' vocabulary outcomes word by word. Comprehension (at 12 and 15 months) and production (15 months) were predicted by frequency, frequency of occurrence in one-word utterances, concreteness, utterance length, and typical duration. These features have been proposed to influence learning before, but here their relative contributions were measured. Mothers' data predicted learning in their own children better than in other children; thus, vocabulary is measurably aligned within families. These analyses provide a quantitative basis for claims concerning the relevance of several properties of maternal English speech in facilitating early word learning.
Descriptors: Infants, Computational Linguistics, Vocabulary Development, English (Second Language), Second Language Learning, Second Language Instruction, Word Frequency, Prediction, Mothers, Parent Child Relationship, Linguistic Input, Speech Communication, Predictor Variables, Statistical Analysis
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Institutes of Health (DHHS)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: R01HD049681