Individual differences in early vocabulary development: redefining the referential-expressive distinction
Abstract
The existence of stylistic variation between children in the early stages of language acquisition has been most frequently studied using Nelson's 0973) referential—expressive distinction. While the use of this distinction has generated a great deal of interesting research, there are a number of major problems associated with it. The present study presents a simple scheme, based on formal categories, for coding stylistic variation in the early lexicon. When applied to the first 50 and 100 words of 12 children collected between 0; 11 and 2; 3, the major dimensions of difference are found to be the relative proportion of common nouns and the relative proportion of frozen phrases. Moreover, the proportion of frozen phrases is also found to be significantly positively related to children's early productivity, suggesting that, rather than being a ‘deadend’ in early language development, the acquisition of frozen phrases may provide an alternative route into multiword speech.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Children's language between ages 2 and 3 is much more 'low-scope' than theories of generative grammar have argued.
“Children's language between the ages of 2 and 3 years old is much more 'low-scope' than theories of generative grammar have argued.”
From FREQUENCY EFFECTS IN LANGUAGE PROCESSING: A Review with Implications for Theories of Implicit and Explicit Language Acquisition (2002) · cites this paper as Lieven, Pine, and Dresner Barnes (1992)
Cites
Children's First Word Combinations
Braine, M. D. S., & Bowerman, M. (1976) · Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development · doi:10.2307/1165959 · Cited by 538 · cited 1× · see citing works
“That is to say, such phrases may provide the child with templates, which, although initially unanalysed, have the potential for further subsequent analysis and conversion into lexically-based patterns (Braine, 1976).”
Background
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Ellis, N. C. (2002) · Studies in Second Language Acquisition · doi:10.1017/s0272263102002024 · Cited by 2,230 · see citing works
Sequencing in SLA: Phonological Memory, Chunking, and Points of Order
Ellis, N. C. (1996) · Studies in Second Language Acquisition · doi:10.1017/s0272263100014698 · Cited by 837 · see citing works
Tecoulesco, L., Skoe, E., & Naigles, L. R. (2020) · Brain and Language · doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2020.104810 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
- Authors
- Lieven, E. V. M., Pine, J. M., & Barnes, H. D.
- Affiliations
- University of Manchester (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Lieven, Elena V. M.
- ORCID
- Lieven, Elena V. M.
- Venue
- Journal of Child Language
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 1992-06
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 287-310
- ISSN
- 0305-0009 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-7602
- OpenAlex
- W2082458536
- Cited by
- 213
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 45 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 9.05
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Child Language (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Explorer (The University of Manchester) (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Second Language Acquisition and Learning
- Keywords
- early vocabulary development, stylistic variation, common nouns, multiword expressions, vocabulary development, individual differences, language acquisition, coding scheme
- MeSH terms
- Child Development, Child Language, Child, Preschool, Communication, Female, Humans, Infant, Language Development, Male, Semantics, Speech Production Measurement, Verbal Behavior, Vocabulary
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
