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Evaluating quantitative measures of grammatical complexity in spontaneous speech samples*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Joanna Blake ,
Georgia Quartaro  and
Susan Onorati
Joanna Blake*
Affiliation:
York University
Georgia Quartaro
Affiliation:
York University
Susan Onorati
Affiliation:
York University
*
Department of Psychology, York University, 4700 Keele St, North York, Ontario, M3J 1P3, Canada.
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Abstract

The validity of MLU and a measure of syntactic complexity were tested against LARSP on spontaneous speech samples from 87 children, ranging in age from 1;6 to 4;9. Change in some LARSP clausal measures was found across MLU stages up to MLU 4.5. For the measure of syntactic complexity, no such ceiling was found for the clausal connectivity score in LARSP or for average clausal complexity in LARSP. Neither MLU nor the measure of syntactic complexity indexed LARSP phrasal complexity. It is concluded that MLU is a valid measure of clausal complexity up to 4·5 and that our measure of syntactic complexity is more valid at more advanced stages.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , February 1993 , pp. 139 - 152
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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Footnotes

[*]

This research was supported by grants to the first author from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Faculty of Arts of York University. We would like to thank Wendy Austin, Marsha Cannon, Judith Codd, Helen Downie, Mary-Lynne Stordy, Evelyn Vingilis and Susan Wetstein for their assistance in recording and transcribing the speech samples and in analysing the data. We are also very grateful to the staff and children of the Canadian Infacare, Friendship Lodge, Hydrokids, Pelmo Park, Tender Loving Care, Woodbine, and York University day care centres for their participation in the study.

References

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