Mean Length of Utterance: A study of early language development in four Southern Bantu languages.

IF 1.7 2区文学 Q1 LINGUISTICS

Journal of Child Language Pub Date : 2024-02-08 DOI:10.1017/S0305000923000685

Heather Brookes, Patricia Makaure, Sefela Yalala, Hannah Danvers, Martin Mössmer, Francesca Little, Mikateko Ndhambi, Frenette Southwood, Babalwa Ludidi

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) has been widely used to measure children's early language development in a variety of languages. This study investigates the utility of MLU to measure language development in four agglutinative and morphologically complex Southern Bantu languages. Using a variant of MLU, MLU3, based on the three longest sentences children produced, we analysed the utterances of 448 toddlers (16-32 months) collected using the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory, a parent-report tool. MLU3, measured in words (MLU3-w) and morphemes (MLU3-m), significantly correlated with age and other indices of language growth (e.g., grammar and vocabulary). MLU3 measures also accounted for significant variance in language development particular morphosyntactic development. Our results suggest that MLU3-m is a more sensitive measure than MLU3-w. We conclude that MLU measured in morphemes provides a useful addition to other indices of language development in these kinds of morphologically complex languages.

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平均语篇长度：四种南班图语言的早期语言发展研究。

平均语篇长度（MLU）已被广泛用于测量各种语言中儿童的早期语言发展。本研究调查了平均语篇长度（MLU）在四种聚合型和形态复杂的南班图语中测量语言发展的实用性。我们使用 MLU 的变体 MLU3（基于儿童所造的三个最长句子），分析了使用麦克阿瑟-贝茨交际发展量表（一种家长报告工具）收集的 448 名幼儿（16-32 个月）的话语。以单词（MLU3-w）和语素（MLU3-m）为单位测量的 MLU3 与年龄和其他语言成长指数（如语法和词汇）显著相关。MLU3 测量还能解释语言发展特别是形态句法发展中的显著差异。我们的结果表明，MLU3-m 比 MLU3-w 更为敏感。我们得出的结论是，在这类形态复杂的语言中，以语素为单位的 MLU 是对其他语言发展指标的有益补充。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Child Language Multiple-

CiteScore

4.70

自引率

4.50%

发文量

142

期刊介绍： A key publication in the field, Journal of Child Language publishes articles on all aspects of the scientific study of language behaviour in children, the principles which underlie it, and the theories which may account for it. The international range of authors and breadth of coverage allow the journal to forge links between many different areas of research including psychology, linguistics, cognitive science and anthropology. This interdisciplinary approach spans a wide range of interests: phonology, phonetics, morphology, syntax, vocabulary, semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, or any other recognised facet of language study.