TY - JOUR
T1 - Mean Length of Utterance
T2 - A study of early language development in four Southern Bantu languages
AU - Brookes, Heather
AU - Makaure, Patricia
AU - Yalala, Sefela
AU - Danvers, Hannah
AU - Mössmer, Martin
AU - Little, Francesca
AU - Ndhambi, Mikateko
AU - Southwood, Frenette
AU - Ludidi, Babalwa
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) has been widely used to measure children's early language development in a variety of languages. This study investigates the utility of MLU to measure language development in four agglutinative and morphologically complex Southern Bantu languages. Using a variant of MLU, MLU3, based on the three longest sentences children produced, we analysed the utterances of 448 toddlers (16-32 months) collected using the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory, a parent-report tool. MLU3, measured in words (MLU3-w) and morphemes (MLU3-m), significantly correlated with age and other indices of language growth (e.g., grammar and vocabulary). MLU3 measures also accounted for significant variance in language development particular morphosyntactic development. Our results suggest that MLU3-m is a more sensitive measure than MLU3-w. We conclude that MLU measured in morphemes provides a useful addition to other indices of language development in these kinds of morphologically complex languages.
AB - Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) has been widely used to measure children's early language development in a variety of languages. This study investigates the utility of MLU to measure language development in four agglutinative and morphologically complex Southern Bantu languages. Using a variant of MLU, MLU3, based on the three longest sentences children produced, we analysed the utterances of 448 toddlers (16-32 months) collected using the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory, a parent-report tool. MLU3, measured in words (MLU3-w) and morphemes (MLU3-m), significantly correlated with age and other indices of language growth (e.g., grammar and vocabulary). MLU3 measures also accounted for significant variance in language development particular morphosyntactic development. Our results suggest that MLU3-m is a more sensitive measure than MLU3-w. We conclude that MLU measured in morphemes provides a useful addition to other indices of language development in these kinds of morphologically complex languages.
KW - Mean length of utterance
KW - Southern Bantu languages
KW - child language development
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85184887738&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S0305000923000685
DO - 10.1017/S0305000923000685
M3 - Article
C2 - 38329018
AN - SCOPUS:85184887738
SN - 0305-0009
JO - Journal of Child Language
JF - Journal of Child Language
M1 - 00685
ER -