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Early lexical acquisition in the Wichi language
Andrea S Taverna1, Sandra R Waxman2
1Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (National Research Council) Formosa, Argentina.
Journal of Child Language
|February 29, 2020
Summary
Children acquiring the Wichi language initially favor nouns over verbs, despite verb-rich input. This noun advantage shifts as their grammatical understanding of both word types develops.
Area of Science:
- Linguistics
- Developmental Psychology
- Child Language Acquisition
Background:
- Wichi, an indigenous language, presents unique linguistic features where verbs are prominent in caregiver input.
- Early lexical acquisition patterns can be influenced by language-specific input characteristics.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate early lexical acquisition in Wichi-speaking infants aged 1-3 years.
- To examine the relationship between input characteristics and children's early vocabulary development in Wichi.
- To understand the role of morphological development in the noun-verb ratio of early lexicons.
Main Methods:
- Study 1: Analyzed parental reports of infant vocabulary.
- Study 2: Analyzed naturalistic speech samples of children and caregivers.
- Utilized mean length of utterance (MLU) as a developmental measure.
Main Results:
- Infants acquiring Wichi predominantly used nouns over verbs, contrary to the input.
- The noun advantage in children's lexicons diminished as their MLU reached 1.5.
- This transition correlated with increased productive control over noun and verb morphology.
Conclusions:
- Language-specific input properties significantly impact early lexical acquisition.
- Children's early vocabulary reflects a complex interplay between input patterns and developing grammatical knowledge.
- Findings contribute to a broader understanding of cross-linguistic variations in child language development.
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