Ratings of age of acquisition of 299 words across 25 languages : is there a cross-linguistic order of words?
(2016) In Behavior Research Methods 48(3). p.1154-1177- Abstract
- We present a new set of subjective age-of-acquisition (AoA) ratings for 299 words (158 nouns, 141 verbs) in 25 languages from five language families (Afro-Asiatic: Semitic languages; Altaic: one Turkic language: Indo-European: Baltic, Celtic, Germanic, Hellenic, Slavic, and Romance languages; Niger-Congo: one Bantu language; Uralic: Finnic and Ugric languages). Adult native speakers reported the age at which they had learned each word. We present a comparison of the AoA ratings across all languages by contrasting them in pairs. This comparison shows a consistency in the orders of ratings across the 25 languages. The data were then analyzed (1) to ascertain how the demographic characteristics of the participants influenced AoA estimations... (More)
- We present a new set of subjective age-of-acquisition (AoA) ratings for 299 words (158 nouns, 141 verbs) in 25 languages from five language families (Afro-Asiatic: Semitic languages; Altaic: one Turkic language: Indo-European: Baltic, Celtic, Germanic, Hellenic, Slavic, and Romance languages; Niger-Congo: one Bantu language; Uralic: Finnic and Ugric languages). Adult native speakers reported the age at which they had learned each word. We present a comparison of the AoA ratings across all languages by contrasting them in pairs. This comparison shows a consistency in the orders of ratings across the 25 languages. The data were then analyzed (1) to ascertain how the demographic characteristics of the participants influenced AoA estimations and (2) to assess differences caused by the exact form of the target question (when did you learn vs. when do children learn this word); (3) to compare the ratings obtained in our study to those of previous studies; and (4) to assess the validity of our study by comparison with quasi-objective AoA norms derived from the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventories (MB-CDI). All 299 words were judged as being acquired early (mostly before the age of 6 years). AoA ratings were associated with the raters’ social or language status, but not with the raters’ age or education. Parents reported words as being learned earlier, and bilinguals reported learning them later. Estimations of the age at which children learn the words revealed significantly lower ratings of AoA. Finally, comparisons with previous AoA and MB-CDI norms support the validity of the present estimations. Our AoA ratings are available for research or other purposes. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/185489ed-a659-426f-a197-e5e9f21e7783
- author
- organization
- publishing date
- 2016-09
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Words, Age of acquisition, AoA, Cross-linguistic comparison, Subjective ratings
- in
- Behavior Research Methods
- volume
- 48
- issue
- 3
- pages
- 24 pages
- publisher
- Springer
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:84939227410
- pmid:26276517
- wos:000382653900026
- ISSN
- 1554-3528
- DOI
- 10.3758/s13428-015-0636-6
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 185489ed-a659-426f-a197-e5e9f21e7783
- alternative location
- http://link.springer.com/article/10.3758%2Fs13428-015-0636-6
- date added to LUP
- 2016-06-17 21:51:11
- date last changed
- 2023-11-22 01:09:15
@article{185489ed-a659-426f-a197-e5e9f21e7783,
abstract = {{We present a new set of subjective age-of-acquisition (AoA) ratings for 299 words (158 nouns, 141 verbs) in 25 languages from five language families (Afro-Asiatic: Semitic languages; Altaic: one Turkic language: Indo-European: Baltic, Celtic, Germanic, Hellenic, Slavic, and Romance languages; Niger-Congo: one Bantu language; Uralic: Finnic and Ugric languages). Adult native speakers reported the age at which they had learned each word. We present a comparison of the AoA ratings across all languages by contrasting them in pairs. This comparison shows a consistency in the orders of ratings across the 25 languages. The data were then analyzed (1) to ascertain how the demographic characteristics of the participants influenced AoA estimations and (2) to assess differences caused by the exact form of the target question (when did you learn vs. when do children learn this word); (3) to compare the ratings obtained in our study to those of previous studies; and (4) to assess the validity of our study by comparison with quasi-objective AoA norms derived from the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventories (MB-CDI). All 299 words were judged as being acquired early (mostly before the age of 6 years). AoA ratings were associated with the raters’ social or language status, but not with the raters’ age or education. Parents reported words as being learned earlier, and bilinguals reported learning them later. Estimations of the age at which children learn the words revealed significantly lower ratings of AoA. Finally, comparisons with previous AoA and MB-CDI norms support the validity of the present estimations. Our AoA ratings are available for research or other purposes.}},
author = {{Łuniewska, Magdalena and Haman, Eva and Armon-Lotem, Sharon and Etenkowski, Bartłomiej and Southwood, Frenette and Anđelković, Darinka and Blom, Elma and Boerma, Tessel and Chiat, Shula and Engel de Abreu, Pascale and Gagarina, Natalia and Gavarró, Anna and Håkansson, Gisela and Hickey, Tina and Jensen de López, Kristine and Marinis, Theodoros and Popović, Maša and Thordardottir, Elin and Blažienė, Agnė and Cantú Sánchez, Myriam and Dabašinskienė, Ineta and Ege, Pınar and Ehret, Inger-Anne and Fritsche, Nelly-Ann and Gatt, Daniela and Janssen, Bibi and Kambanaros, Maria and Kapalková, Svetlana and Kronqvist, Bjarke and Kunnari, Sari and Levorato, Chiara and Nenonen, Olga and Nic Fhlannchadha, Siobhán and O’Toole, Ciara and Polišenská, Kamila and Pomiechowska, Barbara and Ringblom, Natalia and Rinker, Tanja and Roch, Maja and Savić, Maja and Slančová, Daniela and Tsimpli, Ianthi Maria and Ünal-Logacev, Özlem}},
issn = {{1554-3528}},
keywords = {{Words; Age of acquisition; AoA; Cross-linguistic comparison; Subjective ratings}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{3}},
pages = {{1154--1177}},
publisher = {{Springer}},
series = {{Behavior Research Methods}},
title = {{Ratings of age of acquisition of 299 words across 25 languages : is there a cross-linguistic order of words?}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13428-015-0636-6}},
doi = {{10.3758/s13428-015-0636-6}},
volume = {{48}},
year = {{2016}},
}