Development of the Whole-Word Structure in Russian-Speaking Children: Longitudinal Study Pages 25-29
Ingrida Balčiūnienė1,2 and Aleksandr N. Kornev2
1Vytautas Magnus University, V. Putvinskio g. 23-206, 44243 Kaunas, Lithuania; 2Saint-Petersburg State Pediatric Medical University, Ul. Litovskaya d. 2, Saint-Petersburg, Russia
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12970/2311-1917.2019.07.04
Download PDFAbstract: There are many studies devoted to the segmental level of a phonological development. From this perspective, the phonological development is discussed as a sequence of separate phonemes acquisition. In contrary, following the whole-word analysis [1], the main point is how a child copes with the whole-word acquisition. For the latter approach, a longitudinal corpus of spontaneous speech is the most suitable data.
The aims of the current study were: a) to estimate a distribution of word-structure patterns with different phonological and articulation complexity, produced by Russian child (2;04-6;05) during his daily conversations with adults; b) to analyze dynamic changes of this distribution. All the words were analysed according the pattern of their syllable structure by means of specially designed software [2] and classified into 22 basic groups; their percentage distribution was estimated. Statistical analysis revealed the most frequent syllabic structures: CVCVC and CVCCV (9-16%) and CVCVCV (8-10%). To verify an influence of the word-structure complexity on a frequency of the given words, their pMLU index [3] was estimated. The regression statistical analysis evidence a high significant determination of the word-structure complexity on their frequency in daily conversations; however, a force of this determination decreased from the age 2;04 to 6;05.
Keywords: Language acquisition, phonology, longitudinal study, corpus study. Read more