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Early vocabulary development in Mandarin (Putonghua) and Cantonese
Twila Tardif1, Paul Fletcher, Weilan Liang
1Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, 530 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1043, USA. twila@umich.edu
Journal of Child Language
|May 14, 2009
Summary
Mandarin-speaking children show faster vocabulary development than Cantonese-speaking children. However, Cantonese-speaking children acquire grammatical function words, like noun classifiers, at a younger vocabulary size.
Area of Science:
- Linguistics
- Developmental Psychology
- Child Language Acquisition
Background:
- Parent report instruments adapted from the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDI) are crucial for studying early vocabulary.
- Understanding linguistic development in diverse language environments is essential.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare vocabulary development in Mandarin and Cantonese-speaking children.
- To investigate the acquisition of noun classifiers in relation to age and vocabulary size.
Main Methods:
- Utilized parent-report instruments based on the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDI).
- Examined vocabulary development in 1694 Mandarin-speaking and 1625 Cantonese-speaking children aged 0;8 to 2;6.
- Assessed the acquisition of noun classifiers based on age and vocabulary size.
Main Results:
- Mandarin-speaking children exhibited higher overall vocabulary scores from approximately 1;4 onwards.
- Factors such as only-child status, monolingual households, and caregiver education influenced vocabulary differences.
- Cantonese-speaking children acquired noun classifiers at smaller vocabulary sizes, reflecting adult language use.
Conclusions:
- Vocabulary development trajectories differ between Mandarin and Cantonese speakers.
- Vocabulary size is a critical metric for examining linguistic element acquisition across languages, alongside age.
- Socio-environmental factors play a role in early language acquisition differences.
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