Adjective forms and functions in British English child-directed speech

DAVIES, Catherine and LINGWOOD, Jamie and ARUNACHALAM, Sudha (2020) Adjective forms and functions in British English child-directed speech. Journal of Child Language, 47 (1). pp. 159-185. ISSN 0305-0009

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000919000242

Abstract

Adjectives are essential for describing and differentiating concepts. However, they have a protracted development relative to other word classes. Here we measure three- and four-year-olds’ exposure to adjectives across a range of interactive and socioeconomic contexts to: (i) measure the syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic variability of adjectives in child-directed speech (CDS); and (ii) investigate how features of the input might scaffold adjective acquisition. In our novel corpus of UK English, adjectives occurred more frequently in prenominal than in postnominal (predicative) syntactic frames, though postnominal frames were more frequent for less-familiar adjectives. They occurred much more frequently with a descriptive than a contrastive function, especially for less-familiar adjectives. Our findings present a partial mismatch between the forms of adjectives found in real-world CDS and those forms that have been shown to be more useful for learning. We discuss implications for models of adjective acquisition and for clinical practice.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information and Comments:	© Cambridge University Press 2019. This article has been published in a revised form in Journal of Child Language https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000919000242. This version is free to view and download for private research and study only. Not for re-distribution, re-sale or use in derivative works.
Faculty / Department:	Faculty of Human and Digital Sciences > School of Psychology
Depositing User:	Jamie Lingwood
Date Deposited:	27 Mar 2023 12:38
Last Modified:	27 Mar 2023 12:38
URI:	https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/3755

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