The Effect of Phonological Complexity on Word Order Acquisition in Early Childhood

• In Event: Poster Session 08
  In Poster Session: PS 08 Topic - Language, Communication

Abstract

Introduction: During the second year of life, children acquire words and expand their receptive and expressive vocabulary at a rapid pace (Frank et al., 2017). Concurrently, toddlers’ phonological abilities also develop. The current study aimed to investigate whether toddler’s growing lexicon is affected by the phonological complexity of the target words. Specifically, we explored if the phonological complexity of words influences the order at which words are acquired both receptively and expressively and if the effect changes at different phases of lexical growth.

Participants & Procedure: Hebrew-speaking parents of 881 toddlers (417 girls, 464 boys) between the ages of 1;0 and 2;0 reported on their child’s receptive and expressive vocabularies. The parents completed a computerized version of the Hebrew adaptation of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories as well as a background questionnaire. Phonological complexity scores of the target words were calculated using the Phonological Mean Length of Utterances (pMLU) measure (Ingram & Ingram, 2001).

Analysis: The proportion of children that were reported to understand each word at each age was calculated. Similar calculation was done for production. Binominal mixed-effects logistic regression models were used to predict the proportion of children that were reported to comprehend and produce each word based on phonological complexity and age. In addition, four lexical phases were distinguished according to lexicon size (1-10 words, 11-50 words, 51-200 words, and more than 200 words). The models were used in the four phases enabling a comparison of the model fit in each phase.

Results: Results showed that phonological complexity did not affect the acquisition of words in comprehension but did affect the acquisition of words in production (table 1). Our findings also showed that in all four lexicon size groups, words that are less phonologically complex were acquired earlier than words that are more phonologically complex. Importantly, this effect was found to be stronger for toddlers with a smaller lexicon size, suggesting that the effect of phonological complexity on word production is stronger at the early phases of vocabulary acquisition (table 2).

Discussion: Findings from this study show that phonological complexity affects word acquisition in production, but not in comprehension, demonstrating different mechanisms of vocabulary acquisition in comprehension and production. Words that are less phonologically complex are acquired earlier, representing a process of subconscious selection of words that are easier to produce.

Authors

• Hila Gendler-Shalev, University of Haifa
  Presenting Author

• Avivit Ben-David, Hadassah Academic College
  Non-Presenting Author

• Rama Novogrodsky, University of Haifa
  Non-Presenting Author