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Quantifying Semantic Linguistic Maturity in Children

Hansson, Kristina LU orcid ; Bååth, Rasmus LU ; Löhndorf, Simone LU ; Sahlén, Birgitta LU and Sikström, Sverker LU orcid (2016) In Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 45(5). p.1183-1199
Abstract
We propose a method to quantify semantic linguistic maturity (SELMA) based on a high dimensional semantic representation ofwords created from the co-occurrence of words in a large text corpus. The method was applied to oral narratives from 108 children aged 4;0–12;10. By comparing the SELMA measure with maturity ratings made by human raters we found that SELMA predicted the rating of semantic maturity made by human raters over and above the prediction made using a child’s age and number of words produced. We conclude that the semantic content of narratives changes in a predictable pattern with children’s age and argue that SELMA is a measure quantifying semantic linguistic maturity. The study opens up the possibility of using quantitative... (More)
We propose a method to quantify semantic linguistic maturity (SELMA) based on a high dimensional semantic representation ofwords created from the co-occurrence of words in a large text corpus. The method was applied to oral narratives from 108 children aged 4;0–12;10. By comparing the SELMA measure with maturity ratings made by human raters we found that SELMA predicted the rating of semantic maturity made by human raters over and above the prediction made using a child’s age and number of words produced. We conclude that the semantic content of narratives changes in a predictable pattern with children’s age and argue that SELMA is a measure quantifying semantic linguistic maturity. The study opens up the possibility of using quantitative measures for studying the development of semantic representation in children’s narratives, and emphasizes the importance of word co-occurrences for understanding the development of meaning. (Less)
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author
; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
semantic development, semantic representation, narratives, semantic linguistic maturity, child language, psychology
in
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research
volume
45
issue
5
pages
17 pages
publisher
Springer
external identifiers
  • scopus:84944711735
  • pmid:26440529
  • pmid:26440529
  • wos:000382335000012
ISSN
0090-6905
DOI
10.1007/s10936-015-9398-7
project
Thinking in Time: Cognition, Communication and Learning
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
First published online: 06 October 2015 The information about affiliations in this record was updated in December 2015. The record was previously connected to the following departments: Logopedics, Phoniatrics and Audiology (013020000), Department of Psychology (012010000), Cognitive Science (015001004), Linguistics and Phonetics (015010003)
id
b4067b94-a4de-406e-95d7-6bcdd7b49dc4 (old id 8058193)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 10:06:18
date last changed
2022-02-17 06:41:18
@article{b4067b94-a4de-406e-95d7-6bcdd7b49dc4,
  abstract     = {{We propose a method to quantify semantic linguistic maturity (SELMA) based on a high dimensional semantic representation ofwords created from the co-occurrence of words in a large text corpus. The method was applied to oral narratives from 108 children aged 4;0–12;10. By comparing the SELMA measure with maturity ratings made by human raters we found that SELMA predicted the rating of semantic maturity made by human raters over and above the prediction made using a child’s age and number of words produced. We conclude that the semantic content of narratives changes in a predictable pattern with children’s age and argue that SELMA is a measure quantifying semantic linguistic maturity. The study opens up the possibility of using quantitative measures for studying the development of semantic representation in children’s narratives, and emphasizes the importance of word co-occurrences for understanding the development of meaning.}},
  author       = {{Hansson, Kristina and Bååth, Rasmus and Löhndorf, Simone and Sahlén, Birgitta and Sikström, Sverker}},
  issn         = {{0090-6905}},
  keywords     = {{semantic development; semantic representation; narratives; semantic linguistic maturity; child language; psychology}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{5}},
  pages        = {{1183--1199}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{Journal of Psycholinguistic Research}},
  title        = {{Quantifying Semantic Linguistic Maturity in Children}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/1567180/8869641.pdf}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/s10936-015-9398-7}},
  volume       = {{45}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}