<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="color:rgb(0,0,153)"><div class="gmail_default" style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.499999046325684px"><font color="#000099">Since MLU is a heuristic measure, seems to me the solution to this problem cannot be universal. Rather, it is necessary to establish a method of counting which will be verified against theoretically-motivated developmental trajectories to achieve comparative standards. In our studies of Hebrew speaking children (Hebrew being a root-based, rich morphological language) we are using a method of counting MLU that takes into consideration the structure of Hebrew along with the need to guard against an inflated MLU. Our way of calculating MLU could perhaps inform other root-based languages such as Arabic but probably not languages with a different typology.</font></div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.499999046325684px"><font color="#000099">Yonata.</font></div></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">
On Mon, May 20, 2013 at 2:47 PM, marilyn vihman <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:marilyn.vihman@york.ac.uk" target="_blank">marilyn.vihman@york.ac.uk</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div style="word-wrap:break-word">I think one of the key problems with calculating MLU in morphemes - although it seems the right way to compare across languages, in principle - is the productivity problem: How do we know which morphemes the child really has any kind of mastery over? Is it sensible or appropriate to count all morphemes as if the child were using them productively, without any test to see if that is true or not? This may give an artificially high count to languages with synthetic morphology, lots of morphemes packed into a single affix...or is a morpheme only counted based on form? Even then, if the presence or absence of a single consonant means having one morpheme or two...less of an issue for English, say, than for many other Indo-European languages...then we probably need much more careful transcription of the phonetics of the child's speech than is usually thought necessary in morphosyntactic studies...<div>
<br></div><div>-marilyn</div><div><div class="h5"><div><br></div><div><br><div><div>On 20 maj <a href="tel:2013" value="+9722013" target="_blank">2013</a>, at 13.40, Isa Barriere wrote:</div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr">
<div><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">I meant to add:</span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">In contrast with a mophologically impoverished/poor language, the number of morphemes will tend to be positively correlated with the number of words, which is why it is not as crucial to calculate MLU in morphemes. </span></div>
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><div><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br></span></div>Good morning,</span><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Isn't there a negative correlation between morphological complexity of a given language and the average number of words that an utterance contains in the same language?</div>
<div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br></div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">If we take the examples in Inuktitut (given Shanley Allen's book based on her dissertation- Allen 1989 or 1990, in the appendix), looking at the utterances taking into account the # of words, many of them would only 1 word. However this does not capture the complexity of the meaning and the structure- that MLU does.</div>
<div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br></div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">So for different stages of devlpt and in the adult language the number of word per utterance may be limited and pretty stable and the progression is therefore best assessed taking into account number of morphemes (less stable across ages and stages). </div>
<div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br></div><div style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Isabelle Barriere, PhD</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, May 20, <a href="tel:2013" value="+9722013" target="_blank">2013</a> at 7:37 AM, Isa Barriere <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:barriere.isa@gmail.com" target="_blank">barriere.isa@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">Good morning,<div>Isn't there a negative correlation between morphological complexity of a given language and the average number of words that an utterance contains in the same language?</div>
<div>
<br></div><div>If we take the examples in Inuktitut (given Shanley Allen's book based on her dissertation- Allen 1989 or 1990, in the appendix), looking at the utterances taking into account the # of words, many of them would only 1 word. However this does not capture the complexity of the meaning and the structure- that MLU does.</div>
<div><br></div><div>So for different stages of devlpt and in the adult language the number of word per utterance may be limited and pretty stable and the progression is therefore best assessed taking into account number of morphemes (less stable across ages and stages). </div>
<div><br></div><div>Isabelle Barriere, PhD</div></div>
</blockquote></div><br></div><div><br></div>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr"><div><font color="#000099"><strong><em>Prof. Yonata Levy</em></strong></font></div>
<div><font color="#000099"><strong><em>Psychology Department </em></strong></font></div>
<div><font color="#000099"><strong><em>and Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical School</em></strong></font></div>
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