Abstract
Children with language disorders have particular difficulty with verbs, but when this difficulty emerges is unknown. We examined syntactic (transitive, intransitive, ditransitive) and semantic (manner, result) features of two-year-olds' verb vocabularies, contrasting late talkers and typically developing children to look for early differences in verb vocabulary. We conducted a retrospective analysis of parent-reported expressive vocabulary from the Language Development Survey (N = 564, N(LT) = 62) (Rescorla, 1989). Verbs were coded for the presence or absence of each syntactic and semantic feature. Binomial mixed-effects regressions revealed the effect of feature on children's knowledge and whether feature interacted with group classification. Our results revealed mostly similarities between late talkers and typically developing children. All children's vocabularies showed a bias against verbs that occur in ditransitive frames. One feature showed a difference between groups: late talkers showed a bias against manner verbs that typically developing children did not.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1-24 |
| Number of pages | 24 |
| Journal | Journal of Child Language |
| DOIs | |
| State | Accepted/In press - Jan 1 2018 |
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Keywords
- late talkers
- verbs
- vocabulary
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Language and Linguistics
- Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
- Developmental and Educational Psychology
- Linguistics and Language
- Psychology(all)
Cite this
The syntactic and semantic features of two-year-olds' verb vocabularies : A comparison of typically developing children and late talkers. / Horvath, Sabrina; Rescorla, Leslie; Arunachalam, Sudha.
In: Journal of Child Language, 01.01.2018, p. 1-24.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
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TY - JOUR
T1 - The syntactic and semantic features of two-year-olds' verb vocabularies
T2 - A comparison of typically developing children and late talkers
AU - Horvath, Sabrina
AU - Rescorla, Leslie
AU - Arunachalam, Sudha
PY - 2018/1/1
Y1 - 2018/1/1
N2 - Children with language disorders have particular difficulty with verbs, but when this difficulty emerges is unknown. We examined syntactic (transitive, intransitive, ditransitive) and semantic (manner, result) features of two-year-olds' verb vocabularies, contrasting late talkers and typically developing children to look for early differences in verb vocabulary. We conducted a retrospective analysis of parent-reported expressive vocabulary from the Language Development Survey (N = 564, N(LT) = 62) (Rescorla, 1989). Verbs were coded for the presence or absence of each syntactic and semantic feature. Binomial mixed-effects regressions revealed the effect of feature on children's knowledge and whether feature interacted with group classification. Our results revealed mostly similarities between late talkers and typically developing children. All children's vocabularies showed a bias against verbs that occur in ditransitive frames. One feature showed a difference between groups: late talkers showed a bias against manner verbs that typically developing children did not.
AB - Children with language disorders have particular difficulty with verbs, but when this difficulty emerges is unknown. We examined syntactic (transitive, intransitive, ditransitive) and semantic (manner, result) features of two-year-olds' verb vocabularies, contrasting late talkers and typically developing children to look for early differences in verb vocabulary. We conducted a retrospective analysis of parent-reported expressive vocabulary from the Language Development Survey (N = 564, N(LT) = 62) (Rescorla, 1989). Verbs were coded for the presence or absence of each syntactic and semantic feature. Binomial mixed-effects regressions revealed the effect of feature on children's knowledge and whether feature interacted with group classification. Our results revealed mostly similarities between late talkers and typically developing children. All children's vocabularies showed a bias against verbs that occur in ditransitive frames. One feature showed a difference between groups: late talkers showed a bias against manner verbs that typically developing children did not.
KW - late talkers
KW - verbs
KW - vocabulary
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85059962653&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85059962653&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S0305000918000508
DO - 10.1017/S0305000918000508
M3 - Article
SP - 1
EP - 24
JO - Journal of Child Language
JF - Journal of Child Language
SN - 0305-0009
ER -