Frequency, Redundancy, and Context in Bilingual Acquisition
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| Title: | Frequency, Redundancy, and Context in Bilingual Acquisition |
|---|---|
| Language: | English |
| Authors: | Paul Ibbotson (ORCID |
| Source: | Journal of Child Language. 2024 52(6):1280-1294. |
| Availability: | Cambridge University Press. 100 Brook Hill Drive, West Nyack, NY 10994. Tel: 800-872-7423; Tel: 845-353-7500; Fax: 845-353-4141; e-mail: subscriptions_newyork@cambridge.org; Web site: https://www.cambridge.org/core/what-we-publish/journals |
| Peer Reviewed: | Y |
| Page Count: | 15 |
| Publication Date: | 2024 |
| Document Type: | Journal Articles Reports - Research |
| Descriptors: | Bilingual Education, Young Children, Bilingual Students, German, English, Predictor Variables, Language Usage, Bilingualism, Word Frequency, Syntax, Redundancy |
| DOI: | 10.1017/S0305000924000473 |
| ISSN: | 0305-0009 1469-7602 |
| Abstract: | We report findings from a corpus-based investigation of three young children growing up in German-English bilingual environments (M = 3;0, Range = 2;3-3;11). Based on 2,146,179 single words and two-word combinations in naturalistic child speech (CS) and child-directed speech (CDS), we assessed the degree to which the frequency distribution of CDS predicted CS usage over time, and systematically identified CS that was over- or underrepresented in the corpus with respect to matched CDS baselines. Results showed that CDS explained 61% of the variance in CS single-word use and 19.3% of the variance in two-word combinations. Furthermore, the bilingual nature of the over- or underrepresented CS was partially attributable to factors beyond the corpus statistics, namely individual differences between children in their bilingual learning environment. In two out of the three children, overrepresented two-word combinations contained higher levels of syntactic slot redundancy than underrepresented CS. These results are discussed with respect to the role that redundancy plays in producing semiformulaic slot-and-frame patterns in CS. |
| Abstractor: | As Provided |
| Entry Date: | 2025 |
| Accession Number: | EJ1487032 |
| Database: | ERIC |
| Abstract: | We report findings from a corpus-based investigation of three young children growing up in German-English bilingual environments (M = 3;0, Range = 2;3-3;11). Based on 2,146,179 single words and two-word combinations in naturalistic child speech (CS) and child-directed speech (CDS), we assessed the degree to which the frequency distribution of CDS predicted CS usage over time, and systematically identified CS that was over- or underrepresented in the corpus with respect to matched CDS baselines. Results showed that CDS explained 61% of the variance in CS single-word use and 19.3% of the variance in two-word combinations. Furthermore, the bilingual nature of the over- or underrepresented CS was partially attributable to factors beyond the corpus statistics, namely individual differences between children in their bilingual learning environment. In two out of the three children, overrepresented two-word combinations contained higher levels of syntactic slot redundancy than underrepresented CS. These results are discussed with respect to the role that redundancy plays in producing semiformulaic slot-and-frame patterns in CS. |
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| ISSN: | 0305-0009 1469-7602 |
| DOI: | 10.1017/S0305000924000473 |
