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Evaluating quantitative measures of grammatical complexity in spontaneous speech samples
J Blake1, G Quartaro, S Onorati
1Department of Psychology, York University, Ontario, Canada.
Journal of Child Language
|February 1, 1993
Summary
Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) effectively measures clausal complexity up to MLU 4.5. A novel syntactic complexity measure offers greater validity for advanced language development stages in children.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Linguistics
- Child Language Acquisition
- Speech-Language Pathology
Background:
- Assessing syntactic complexity in child language is crucial for understanding developmental trajectories.
- Existing measures like Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) have limitations in capturing advanced complexity.
- The Language Assessment, Remediation and Screening Procedure (LARSP) provides a detailed framework for analyzing grammatical development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the validity of Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) as a measure of syntactic complexity in children's spontaneous speech.
- To assess the efficacy of a novel syntactic complexity measure against the Language Assessment, Remediation and Screening Procedure (LARSP).
- To determine the developmental ceiling for MLU and the proposed syntactic complexity measure in relation to LARSP clausal and phrasal complexity.
Main Methods:
- Spontaneous speech samples were collected from 87 children aged 1;6 to 4;9.
- The validity of MLU and a new syntactic complexity measure were tested against the Language Assessment, Remediation and Screening Procedure (LARSP).
- Analysis focused on clausal and phrasal complexity scores derived from LARSP.
Main Results:
- Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) demonstrated validity for clausal complexity up to MLU stage 4.5.
- The novel syntactic complexity measure showed no ceiling effect for clausal connectivity or average clausal complexity in LARSP.
- Neither MLU nor the novel measure adequately indexed LARSP phrasal complexity.
Conclusions:
- Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) is a valid indicator of clausal complexity in early to mid-childhood language development (up to MLU 4.5).
- The developed syntactic complexity measure is more robust and valid for assessing more advanced stages of syntactic development.
- Further research is needed to develop measures that accurately capture phrasal complexity in developing child language.