Mean Length of Utterance and the Acquisition of Irish
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Title: | Mean Length of Utterance and the Acquisition of Irish | Authors: | Hickey, Tina | Permanent link: | http://hdl.handle.net/10197/4153 | Date: | Oct-1991 | Online since: | 2013-02-28T11:18:48Z | Abstract: | One of the most widely used indices of language development is a measure of utterance length in morphemes (MLUm). This study examines the applicability of MLUm to the acquisition of Irish. MLUm was calculated for data from Cian, aged 1;11–3;0. Even when an attempt was made to ‘assume the maximum’ by counting all possible morphemes, the correlation between a morpheme MLU (MLUm) and a word count MLU (MLUw) was very high (0·99). This points to MLUw being as effective a measure of Irish development as MLUm, as well as being easier to apply and more reliable. MLUw was calculated for the two younger children in the study (Eibhlís 1;4–2;1 and Eoin 1;10–2;6). An examination of the relationship between the three children's MLUw values and their grammatical complexity as measured on ILARSP (the Irish adaptation of LARSP) indicates that MLUw is a useful preliminary index for early development in Irish. However, further data are necessary to check whether MLUw loses its predictive relationship with grammatical complexity after a certain point. The study emphasizes the caution necessary in applying MLU to languages whose acquisition has not hitherto been studied, and underlines the role of MLU as a preliminary measure, which must not be overinterpreted. | Type of material: | Journal Article | Publisher: | Cambridge University Press | Journal: | Journal of Child Language | Volume: | 18 | Issue: | 3 | Start page: | 553 | End page: | 569 | Copyright (published version): | Cambridge University Press 1991 | Keywords: | Language acquisition; Morphemics; Irish language | DOI: | 10.1017/S0305000900011247 | Language: | en | Status of Item: | Peer reviewed |
Appears in Collections: | Psychology Research Collection |
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