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Article contents
Faroese children’s first words
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 May 2022
Abstract
Research has shown the importance of vocabulary development in relation to other parts of language development, e.g. grammar and reading development. Cross-linguistic research has shown similar as well as dissimilar tendencies regarding content in different languages. This study examines, for the first time, the characteristics of Faroese children’s early productive vocabulary utilizing a Faroese adaptation of the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventories (MB-CDI). The study participants were 415 children aged 8 to 20 months. The results provide information on the composition and characteristics of lexical development in Faroese children and demonstrate that nouns are dominant among first words, as are onomatopoetic words and words describing family relationships. Faroese children are comparable to children learning other languages with respect to rate of acquisition and composition of words, with a somewhat higher share of words describing family members as stable words in the emerging language.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Nordic Journal of Linguistics , Volume 46 , Special Issue 3: Call for Papers: NJL Special Issue , December 2023 , pp. 406 - 431
- Copyright
- © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Nordic Association of Linguists
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