First Language最新文献

Corrigendum to “Does the processing advantage of formulaic language persist in its nonadjacent forms? Evidence from Chinese collocation processing in children” 公式化语言的加工优势在非相邻形式中是否依然存在？来自儿童汉语搭配加工的证据"

IF 1.9 2区文学

First Language Pub Date : 2024-09-06 DOI: 10.1177/01427237241276902

引用次数: 0

Inflectional morphology and reading comprehension in low SES Arabic-speaking second graders 低社会经济地位阿拉伯语二年级学生的词形变化和阅读理解能力

IF 1.9 2区文学

First Language Pub Date : 2024-08-30 DOI: 10.1177/01427237241272523

Vered Vaknin-Nusbaum, Bahaa’ Makhoul

{"title":"Inflectional morphology and reading comprehension in low SES Arabic-speaking second graders","authors":"Vered Vaknin-Nusbaum, Bahaa’ Makhoul","doi":"10.1177/01427237241272523","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01427237241272523","url":null,"abstract":"Reading acquisition in Arabic presents unique challenges, notably due to its complex morphological structure and the diglossic nature of the language. The discrepancy between written (Modern Standard) and spoken Arabic poses significant barriers for learners, particularly in decoding morphologically complex words. This study explored the role of inflectional morphology in reading comprehension among 173 Arabic-speaking second graders from a low SES background, where these challenges are most evident. These relations were examined at the beginning and the end of second grade, enabling the tracking of correlations between change in reading comprehension score and types of inflectional awareness throughout the year. Whereas findings demonstrated a positive correlation between inflectional awareness, phonological decoding, vocabulary, and reading comprehension at the beginning of the year, only inflectional awareness was correlated with reading comprehension at the end of the year. Regression results showed that initial inflectional awareness uniquely explained 12% of the variance in reading comprehension at the end of the year. In addition, readers who improved their reading comprehension throughout the year also improved their inflectional awareness and showed reading comprehension comparable to those who started high in reading comprehension. Results are discussed in accordance with previous research and the unique features of Arabic.","PeriodicalId":47254,"journal":{"name":"First Language","volume":"10 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142178012","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Corrigendum to “Establishing Guidelines for MLU measurement in an agglutinating language: An illustration of Georgian” 制定凝集语言的多语言单位测量准则：以格鲁吉亚语为例"

IF 1.9 2区文学

First Language Pub Date : 2024-08-02 DOI: 10.1177/01427237241274419

引用次数: 0

Development of derivational morphology in Kuwaiti Arabic-speaking children 科威特阿拉伯语儿童派生词形态的发展

IF 1.9 2区文学

First Language Pub Date : 2024-07-24 DOI: 10.1177/01427237241261793

Nailah Al-Sulaihim, Fauzia Abdalla, Abdessattar Mahfoudhi, Saleh Shaalan

{"title":"Development of derivational morphology in Kuwaiti Arabic-speaking children","authors":"Nailah Al-Sulaihim, Fauzia Abdalla, Abdessattar Mahfoudhi, Saleh Shaalan","doi":"10.1177/01427237241261793","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01427237241261793","url":null,"abstract":"The objective of this study was to examine the development of derivational morphological structures in the productive language of Kuwaiti Arabic (KA)-speaking children. Participants were 512 typically developing Kuwaiti children aged 3;0 years to 7;11 years (243 boys and 269 girls). Five age groups at 1-year intervals were tested; each group was divided into four sub-groups at 3-month intervals. The children were examined using a tool designed to assess structures specific to the KA dialect, and they were assessed by trained research assistants at their nurseries and public schools. There were clear developmental trajectories in the derivational morphological structures studied in KA-speaking children across the five age groups. Results showed that KA-speaking children have not reached mastery level in most of the structures examined in this study. Among the two types of derivations examined, nominal derivations emerged later than verb derivations. Error analysis showed that most errors were morphological, affecting mainly the root. The results of this study enhance our knowledge of early language development in Arabic by showing that nominal derivations develop later than verb derivations. The results are discussed in light of previous cross-linguistic studies, which also found a similar trajectory in terms of morphological development. Further, Arabic morphological theory, as well as implications for practice and the need for further research, is discussed.","PeriodicalId":47254,"journal":{"name":"First Language","volume":"54 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141776781","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Book Review: Zarchy, R. M. & Geer, L. C., A family-centered signed language curriculum to support deaf children’s language acquisition 书评：Zarchy, R. M. & Geer, L. C., A family-centered signed language curriculum to support deaf children's language acquisition

IF 1.9 2区文学

First Language Pub Date : 2024-07-23 DOI: 10.1177/01427237241261423

Daniel Fobi

引用次数: 0

Subject–verb agreement: Three experiments on Catalan 主谓一致：加泰罗尼亚语的三个实验

IF 1.9 2区文学

First Language Pub Date : 2024-05-28 DOI: 10.1177/01427237241252873

Anna Gavarró, Alejandra Keidel

{"title":"Subject–verb agreement: Three experiments on Catalan","authors":"Anna Gavarró, Alejandra Keidel","doi":"10.1177/01427237241252873","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01427237241252873","url":null,"abstract":"This study delves into the syntactic parsing abilities of children and infants exposed to Catalan as their first language. Focusing first on ages 3 to 6, we conducted two sentence-picture matching tasks. In experiment 1, 3 to 4-year-old children failed in identifying singular third-person subjects within null-subject sentences, although they performed above chance in all other scenarios, including plural third-person subjects and sentences with overt full DP subjects. This is reminiscent of the results of Pérez-Leroux for Spanish. In experiment 2, with the same design but involving numeral distractors, children’s performance was above chance level across all conditions from age 3 to 4. Then, in experiment 3, we moved to a younger age range with the help of eye-tracking techniques. The findings revealed that infants at 22 months had the ability to parse subject–verb agreement in sentences with third-person null subjects, and at 19 months there was evidence of parsing for third-person plural null subjects. These findings are inconsistent with the perception of children grappling with syntactic agreement computation. We argue that instances of underperformance in subject–verb agreement parsing identified in the literature often stem from task-related and pragmatic issues rather than core syntactic delay. If so, the putative asymmetry between early production of verbal inflection and late comprehension disappears; rather, the results suggest early establishment of matching operations and mastery of language-specific agreement properties before production starts.","PeriodicalId":47254,"journal":{"name":"First Language","volume":"57 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141165520","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Using cognitive measures from linguistic relativity research to assess thinking in Yucatec Maya-Spanish bilingual children 利用语言相对论研究中的认知测量方法评估尤卡泰克玛雅-西班牙语双语儿童的思维能力

IF 1.9 2区文学

First Language Pub Date : 2024-05-28 DOI: 10.1177/01427237241253315

Jaime Inocencio Chi Pech

{"title":"Using cognitive measures from linguistic relativity research to assess thinking in Yucatec Maya-Spanish bilingual children","authors":"Jaime Inocencio Chi Pech","doi":"10.1177/01427237241253315","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01427237241253315","url":null,"abstract":"This article uses cognitive measures previously developed within linguistic relativity research to explore the thinking patterns of Yucatec Maya-Spanish bilingual children in the Yucatan peninsula. These measures were designed to detect cognitive patterns associated with specific language patterns. Here, these measures are used to test whether 12 Yucatec Maya-Spanish bilingual children aged 9–11 years old differ cognitively from a similar sample of monolingual Maya children (nine Yucatec Maya-speaking and three Spanish-speaking). The study assesses cognitive associations for two language domains: number marking, a structure-based contrast, and spatial frames of reference, a usage-based contrast. For both number marking and spatial frames of reference, both bilingual and monolingual children provided cognitive responses more like Yucatec Maya monolingual speakers than like Spanish monolinguals. The study also assessed whether the results were affected by factors that have emerged in other studies of bilingual cognition: language status, social community, and language of assessment (‘language mode’). For number marking, there was an effect of the language of assessment, but not of social community or language status. For spatial frames of reference, there were effects of social community and language status but not of the language of assessment. Overall, the results suggest that Yucatec Maya's cognitive habits may continue for some time during the shift from Yucatec Maya monolingualism to bilingualism but with some sensitivity to these other factors. This study offers a positive outlook for efforts to maintain and revitalize the Yucatec Maya language in the Yucatan peninsula.","PeriodicalId":47254,"journal":{"name":"First Language","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141165522","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Establishing guidelines for MLU measurement in an agglutinating language: An illustration of Georgian 为凝集语言的多语言单元测量制定准则：以格鲁吉亚语为例

IF 1.9 2区文学

First Language Pub Date : 2024-04-29 DOI: 10.1177/01427237241247930

Tinatin Tchintcharauli, Nino Tsintsadze, Teona Damenia, Tamar Kalkhitashvili, Nino Doborjginidze, Sigal Uziel-Karl

{"title":"Establishing guidelines for MLU measurement in an agglutinating language: An illustration of Georgian","authors":"Tinatin Tchintcharauli, Nino Tsintsadze, Teona Damenia, Tamar Kalkhitashvili, Nino Doborjginidze, Sigal Uziel-Karl","doi":"10.1177/01427237241247930","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01427237241247930","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores the applicability of mean length of utterance (MLU) as a language assessment measure for Georgian child language, as to-date, Georgian, a morphologically rich language with numerous inflectional categories, experiences an extensive lack of instruments for early language assessment. To this end, a set of guidelines for calculating Georgian MLU was developed based on the analysis of a longitudinal corpus of two Georgian-speaking children aged 12–35 months. This was supported by the findings of previous studies on Georgian acquisition. Furthermore, the guidelines were used to compare MLU in morphemes (MLU-m) with MLU in words (MLU-w) and MLU in syllables (MLU-s) to determine the most suitable method for assessing morphological development in Georgian. These results indicate that MLU-m closely aligns with the description of language development in Georgian children. MLU-s is useful for demonstrating early linguistic development, while MLU-w correlates with age but does not capture changes within words over time. Further testing on a larger corpus is needed to refine the guidelines for more accurate assessment of Georgian-speaking children.","PeriodicalId":47254,"journal":{"name":"First Language","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140836103","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

A prosodic account of complex predicate acquisition in Mam: A Mayan language 玛雅语中复杂谓词习得的前音解释：玛雅语

IF 1.9 2区文学

First Language Pub Date : 2024-03-09 DOI: 10.1177/01427237241232741

Clifton Pye

{"title":"A prosodic account of complex predicate acquisition in Mam: A Mayan language","authors":"Clifton Pye","doi":"10.1177/01427237241232741","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01427237241232741","url":null,"abstract":"The Mayan language Mam uses complex predicates to express events. Complex predicates map multiple semantic elements onto a single word, and consequently have a blend of lexical and phrasal features. The chameleon-like nature of complex predicates provides a window on children’s ability to express phrasal combinations at the one-word stage of language development. The ubiquity of complex predicates in the adult language insures that children will produce complex predicates as some of their first words. The verb complex in Mam has obligatory inflections for aspect, person, and to a degree direction. The inflections vary in degree of attachment between syllable segments, affixes, and clitics. Inflections with vowels are phonologically free, while inflections without vowels attach as either syllable segments or affixes. The Mam verb complex requires the addition of a phrasal layer to prosodic models of lexical acquisition. The paper used this extended version of prosodic theory to make five predictions for the acquisition of the verb complex. The paper analyzes production data for three children between 2;0 and 2;8 acquiring the northern variety of Mam spoken in San Ildefonso Ixtahuacán, Guatemala. The children’s production data for both the intransitive and transitive verb complexes support all five predictions to some degree. The children produced prefixes more frequently on vowel-initial stems than on consonant-initial stems, and they produced imperative suffixes more frequently than prefixes on consonant-initial stems. The children exhibited developmental differences and produced phrasal contractions that the prosodic theory did not predict. The results underline the need to integrate prosody into models of morphosyntactic development, and highlight the significance of complex predicates for theories of language acquisition.","PeriodicalId":47254,"journal":{"name":"First Language","volume":"135 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2024-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140073495","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

The acquisition of directionals in Q’anjob’al 在 Q'anjob'al 获取方向标

IF 1.9 2区文学

First Language Pub Date : 2024-03-05 DOI: 10.1177/01427237241228693

Pedro Mateo Pedro

引用次数: 0