Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T06:24:02.349Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Relationship between Early Lexical and Grammatical Development in Spanish: Evidence in Children with Different Linguistic Levels

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2013

Sonia Mariscal  and
Carlos Gallego
Sonia Mariscal*
Affiliation:
Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (Spain)
Carlos Gallego
Affiliation:
Universidad Complutense (Spain)
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Sonia Mariscal. Departamento de Psicología Evolutiva, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED). C/ Juan del Rosal, 10. 28040 Madrid (Spain). E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study analyzes the relationship between lexical and grammatical development in Spanish children. The (European) Spanish version of the MacArthur-Bates CDI was used and administered to 593 Spanish-speaking children between the ages of 16 and 30-months-old. Regression analysis was applied to evaluate the relationship between age, vocabulary (total vocabulary, nouns, and verbs) and grammatical scores on two subsections of the Grammar Part. Total vocabulary explained a significantly greater proportion of variance in grammatical outcomes than age did. However, noun and verb vocabularies did not explain a greater proportion of variance in their respective morphologies than total vocabulary did. Additionally, the predictive relationship between vocabulary and grammar was found to be weaker for children whose scores were below the 10th percentile, although this could be due to the minor variability in this group and to extreme cases. We discuss the implications of these results in relation to the question of continuity between early vocabulary and grammar development in children.

En este estudio se analiza la relación entre el desarrollo léxico y gramatical en niños españoles. La versión española de los Inventarios MacArthur-Bates fue administrada a 593 niños de 16 a 30 meses de edad. Se aplicaron análisis de regresión para evaluar la relación entre la edad, el vocabulario (total, nominal y verbal) y las puntuaciones en dos sub-secciones del apartado gramatical. El vocabulario total explica una proporción significativamente mayor de la varianza de las puntuaciones gramaticales que la edad. Sin embargo, los vocabularios parciales, nominal y verbal, no explican proporciones significativamente mayores de la varianza de sus puntuaciones en morfología, que la edad. Por otro lado, la capacidad de predicción del vocabulario sobre la gramática resulta menor en los niños cuyas puntuaciones los sitúan por debajo del percentil 10; sin embargo, este resultado puede atribuirse a la menor variabilidad y a casos extremos hallados en este grupo. Se discuten las implicaciones de todo este conjunto de resultados en relación a la hipótesis de continuidad entre el vocabulario y la gramática en el desarrollo temprano.

Keywords

lexical-grammatical relationshipSpanish language acquisitionMacArthur-Bates Inventorieslate talkersrelación léxico-gramáticaadquisición de la lengua españolaInventarios MacArthur-Bateshablantes tardíos
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , March 2012 , pp. 112 - 123
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barreña, A., García, I., Ezeizabarrena, M. J., Almgren, M., Arratibel, N., Olano, I., … Colina, A. (2008). MacArthur-Bates komunikazio garapena neurtzeko zerrenda. Euskarara egokitua. Erabiltzaileentzako gida eta eskuliburu teknikoa [Mac Arthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories. Adapted to Basque. User guide and technical manual]. Bilbao, Spain: UEU.Google Scholar
Bassano, D. (2000). Early development of nouns and verbs in French: Exploring the interface between lexicon and grammar. Journal of Child Language, 27, 521–559. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0305000900004396CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bates, E., Bretherton, I., & Snyder, L. (Eds.) (1988). From first word to grammar. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bates, E., & Goodman, J. (1997). On the inseparability of grammar and the lexicon: evidence from acquisition, aphasia and real-time processing. Language and Cognitive Processes, 12, 507–86.Google Scholar
Bates, E., & Goodman, J. (2001). On the inseparability of grammar and the lexicon: Evidence from acquisition. In Tomasello, M. & Bates, E. (Eds.), Language development: The essential readings (pp. 134–162). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar
Bates, E., Marchman, V., Thal, D., Fenson, L., Dale, P., Reznick, S., … Hartung, J. (1994). Developmental and stylistic variation in the composition of early vocabulary. Journal of Child Language, 21, 85–124. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0305000900008680CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bleses, D., Vach, W., Slott, M., Wehberg, S., Thomsen, P., Mandsen, T., & Basboll, H. (2008). The Danish Communicative Development Inventories: Validity and main developmental trends. Journal of Child Language, 35, 651–669. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0305000907008574CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Caselli, C., Casadio, P., & Bates, E. (1999). A comparison of the transition from first words to grammar in English and Italian. Journal of Child Language, 26, 69–111. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0305000998003687CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Conti-Ramsden, G., & Jones, M. (1997). Verb use in specific language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 4, 1298–1313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Devescovi, A., Caselli, C., Marchione, D., Pasqualetti, P., Reilly, J., & Bates, E. (2005). A crosslinguistic study of the relationship between grammar and lexicon development. Journal of Child Language, 32, 759–786. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0305000905007105CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dionne, G., Dale, P. S., Boivin, M., & Plomin, R. (2003). Genetic evidence for bidirectional effects of early lexical and grammatical development. Child Development, 74, 394–412. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.7402005CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dixon, J., & Marchman, V. (2007). Grammar and lexicon: Developmental ordering in language acquisition. Child Development, 78, 190–212. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.00992.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Elman, J. (1999). The emergence of language: A conspiracy theory. In MacWhinney, B. (Ed.), The emergence of language (pp. 1–27). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Fenson, L., Dale, P., Bates, E., Reznick, J., Thal, D., & Pethick, S. (1994). Variability in early communicative development. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 59, 1–185. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1166093CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fenson, L., Dale, P., Reznick, J., Thal, D., Bates, E., Hartung, J., … Reilly, J. (1993). The MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories: User's guide and technical manual. San Diego, CA: Singular Publishing Group.Google Scholar
Fenson, L., Marchman, V. A., Thal, D., Dale, P. S., Reznick, J. S., & Bates, E. (2007). The MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories: User's guide and technical manual. (2nd Ed.). Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brooks.Google Scholar
Gallo, P. (1990). Cómo el niño construye hipótesis sobre la gramática de su lengua [How do children build hypotheses on the grammar of their language]. Estudios de Psicología, 41, 73–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gleitman, L. (1990). The structural sources of verb meanings. Language Acquisition, 1, 3–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327817la0101_2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hulman, J., Weismer, S., Evans, J., & Hollar, C. (2005). Utility of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory in identifying language abilities of late talking and typically developing children. American Journal of Speech and Language Pathology, 14, 40–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson-Maldonado, D., Thal, D., Marchman, V., Bates, E., & Gutierrez-Clellen, V. (1993). Early lexical development in Spanish-speaking infants and toddlers. Journal of Child Language, 20, 523–549. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0305000900008461CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jackson-Maldonado, D., Thal, D., Marchman, V., Fenson, L., Newton, T., & Conboy, B. (2003). CDI Inventarios MacArthur-Bates del Desarrollo de Habilidades Comunicativas [CDI MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories]. Baltimore, MD: Brookes Publishing.Google Scholar
Karousou, A. (2003). Análisis de las vocalizaciones tempranas: su patrón evolutivo y su función determinante en la emergencia de la palabra [Analysis of early vocalizations: their developmental pattern and their key role in the emergence of words]. (Doctoral thesis). Madrid, Spain: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid.Google Scholar
Karmiloff-Smith, A. (1992). Beyond modularity: a developmental perspective in cognitive science. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Koster, C., Been, P. H., Krikhaar, E. M., Zwarts, F., Diepstra, H. D., & Van Leeuwen, T. H. (2005). Differences at 17 months: Productive language patterns in infants at familial risk for dyslexia and typically developing children. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 48, 426–438.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
López-Ornat, S. (1990). Sobre la gramaticalización. Prototipos para la adquisición de la concordancia verbo-sujeto: datos de lengua española en niños de 1;06 a 3;06 [On grammaticalization. Prototypes in the acquisition of verb-subject agreement: Evidence from Spanish language in children aged 1;06-3;06]. Cognitiva, 4, 49–74.Google Scholar
López-Ornat, S. (1992). La formación de la oración simple: las omisiones de categorías sintácticas (S/V/O) en la adquisición del español [The formation of simple sentences: omitting syntactic categories (S/V/O) in the acquisition of Spanish]. Estudios de Psicología, 41, 41–72.Google Scholar
López-Ornat, S. (1999). La adquisición del lenguaje. Nuevas perspectivas [New perspectives on language acquisition]. In Vega, M. de & Cuetos, F. (Eds.). Psicolingüística del español [Psycholinguistics of Spanish language]. Madrid, Spain: Trotta.Google Scholar
López-Ornat, S., Fernández, A., Gallo, P., & Mariscal, S. (1994). La adquisición de la lengua española [Spanish Language Acquisition]. Madrid, Spain: Siglo XXI.Google Scholar
López-Ornat, S., Gallego, C., Gallo, P., Karousou, A., Mariscal, S., & Martínez, M. (2005). Inventarios de desarrollo comunicativo MacArthur. Manual Técnico [MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories. Technical manual]. Madrid, Spain: TEA, Ediciones.Google Scholar
Lyytinen, P., & Lyytinen, H. (2004). Growth and predictive relations of vocabulary and inflectional morphology in children with and without familial risk for dyslexia. Applied Psycholinguistics, 25, 397–411. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0142716404001183CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marchman, V., & Bates, E. (1994). Continuity in lexical and morphological development: a test of the critical mass hypothesis. Journal of Child Language, 21, 339–366. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0305000900009302CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marchman, V., Martinez-Sussmann, C., & Dale, P. (2004). The language-specific nature of grammar development: Evidence from bilingual language learners. Developmental Science, 7(2), 212–224. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2004.00340.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marcus, G., Pinker, S., Ullman, M., Hollander, M., Rosen, T. J., & Yu, F. (1992). Overregularization in language acquisition. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 57, 1–182.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mariscal, S. (2001). ¿Es “a pé” equivalente a Det+N? Sobre el conocimiento temprano de las categorías gramaticales. [Is “a pé” equivalent to Det+N? On the early knowledge of grammatical categories]. Cognitiva, 13, 35–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mariscal, S., López-Ornat, S., & Nieva, S. (2010). Observar y medir el desarrollo gramatical temprano en español: Un estudio de validez concurrente [Measuring early knowledge of grammar in Spanish children: Concurrent validity of three sources of data]. Psicothema, 22, 51–56.Google Scholar
Moyle, M. J., Weismer, S. E., Evans, J. L., & Lindstrom, M. J. (2007). Longitudinal relationships between lexical and grammatical development in typical and late-talking children. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 50, 508–528. http://dx.doi.org/10.1044/1092-4388(2007/035)CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Naigles, L. (1990). Children use syntax to learn verb meanings. Journal of Child Language, 17, 357–374. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0305000900013817CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pérez-Pereira, M., & García-Soto, X. R. (2003). El diagnóstico del desarrollo comunicativo en la primera infancia: adaptación de las escalas MacArthur al gallego [The diagnosis of communicative development in early childhood: adaptation of the MacArthur inventories into Galician]. Psicothema, 15, 352–361.Google Scholar
Plunkett, K., & Marchmam, V. (1993). From rote learning to system building: Acquiring verb morphology in children and connectionist nets. Cognition, 48, 21–69. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0010-0277(93)90057-3CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Serrat, E., Sanz-Torrent, M., & Bel, A. (2004). Aprendizaje léxico y desarrollo de la gramática: vocabulario verbal, aceleración morfológica y complejidad sintáctica [Lexical learning and grammar development: verbal vocabulary, sharp morphological increase and syntactic complexity]. Anuario de Psicología, 35, 221–234.Google Scholar
Smith, P., Nix, A., Davey, N., López-Ornat, S., & Messer, D. (2003). A connectionist account of Spanish determiner productions. Journal of Child Language, 30, 305–331. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0305000903005622CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stolt, S., Haataja, L., Lapineimu, H., & Lehtonen, L. (2009). Associations between lexicon and grammar at the end of the second year in Finnish children. Journal of Child Language, 36, 779–806. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0305000908009161CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thal, D., O'Hanlon, L., Clemmons, M., & Fralin, L. (1999). Validity of a parent report measure of vocabulary and syntax for preschool children with language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 42, 482–496.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tomasello, M. (2000). Do young children have adult syntactic competence?. Cognition, 74, 209–253. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0010-0277(99)00069-4CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westerlund, M., Berglund, E., & Eriksson, M. (2006). Can severely language delayed 3-year-olds be identified at 18 months? Evaluation of a screening version of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 49, 237–247. http://dx.doi.org/10.1044/1092-4388(2006/020)CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Windfuhr, K. L., Faragher, B., & Conti-Ramsden, G. (2002). Lexical learning skills in young children with specific language impairment (SLI). International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 37, 415–432. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1368282021000007758CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed