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Do children really acquire dense neighbourhoods?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 September 2019

Samuel David JONES  and
Silke BRANDT
Samuel David JONES*
Affiliation:
Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
Silke BRANDT
Affiliation:
Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
*
*Corresponding author. Sam Jones, Department of Linguistics and English Language, County South, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK, LA1 4YL. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Children learn high phonological neighbourhood density words more easily than low phonological neighbourhood density words (Storkel, 2004). However, the strength of this effect relative to alternative predictors of word acquisition is unclear. We addressed this issue using communicative inventory data from 300 British English-speaking children aged 12 to 25 months. Using Bayesian regression, we modelled word understanding and production as a function of: (i) phonological neighbourhood density, (ii) frequency, (iii) length, (iv) babiness, (v) concreteness, (vi) valence, (vii) arousal, and (viii) dominance. Phonological neighbourhood density predicted word production but not word comprehension, and this effect was stronger in younger children.

Keywords

phonological neighbourhood densityword learningcorpus analysis
Type
Brief Research Reports
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 46 , Issue 6 , November 2019 , pp. 1260 - 1273
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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