MLU giving odd results

Wed Oct 9 22:18:09 UTC 2024

I tried the MLU command with the same file (020304) and replicated the same result as Peter.

Could it have to do with how the MLU command handles utterances with repeated words?

For example, these are some of the longest utterances in this transcript:

*CHI:    bulldozer bulldozer bulldozer bulldozer bulldozer bulldozer bulldozer bulldozer bulldozer bulldozer bulldozer bulldozer bulldozer bulldozer .

*CHI:    put dirt up (.) put dirt up (.) put dirt up .

*CHI:    look look look look .

Sarah Surrain, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow (she/her/ella)
Children’s Learning Institute
McGovern Medical School at UTHealth
7000 Fannin St | 2460A | Houston, TX 77030
713-500-3826
www.childrenslearninginstitute.org<http://www.childrenslearninginstitute.org>
https://sarahsurrain.com/

From: chibolts at googlegroups.com <chibolts at googlegroups.com> on behalf of Gordon, Peter <pgordon at tc.edu>
Date: Wednesday, October 9, 2024 at 5:15 PM
To: Nan Bernstein Ratner <nratner at umd.edu>
Cc: chibolts at googlegroups.com <chibolts at googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: MLU giving odd results
Yes it does them sequentially.  I've always done it that way.

On Wed, Oct 9, 2024 at 6:01 PM Nan Bernstein Ratner <nratner at umd.edu<mailto:nratner at umd.edu>> wrote:
I could be wrong but it looks like your command put in ALL of Adam's files? *.cha?

On Wed, Oct 9, 2024, 5:47 PM Gordon, Peter <pgordon at tc.edu<mailto:pgordon at tc.edu>> wrote:
I just taught a class where students do a simple MLU analysis to get used to CHILDES.  As I was doing it in class I noticed that the MLUs for Adam did not look right. His MLU for the first sample was 4.176, despite having mostly single word utterances.  Any thoughts?

Peter

mlu +tchi childes/Eng-NA/Brown/Adam/*.cha

Wed Oct  9 17:38:29 2024

mlu (29-Oct-2020) is conducting analyses on:

  ONLY dependent tiers matching: %MOR;

****************************************

_________________________________________________________________

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

>From file <childes/Eng-NA/Brown/Adam/020304.cha>

MLU for Speaker: *CHI:

  MLU (xxx, yyy and www are EXCLUDED from the utterance and morpheme counts):

      Number of: utterances = 1239, morphemes = 5174

      Ratio of morphemes over utterances = 4.176

      Standard deviation = 2.946

_________________________________________________________________

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vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

>From file <childes/Eng-NA/Brown/Adam/020318.cha>

MLU for Speaker: *CHI:

  MLU (xxx, yyy and www are EXCLUDED from the utterance and morpheme counts):

      Number of: utterances = 1272, morphemes = 5062

      Ratio of morphemes over utterances = 3.980

      Standard deviation = 2.767

_________________________________________________________________

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

>From file <childes/Eng-NA/Brown/Adam/020403.cha>

MLU for Speaker: *CHI:

  MLU (xxx, yyy and www are EXCLUDED from the utterance and morpheme counts):

      Number of: utterances = 830, morphemes = 3964

      Ratio of morphemes over utterances = 4.776

      Standard deviation = 3.062

_________________________________________________________________

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

>From file <childes/Eng-NA/Brown/Adam/020415.cha>

MLU for Speaker: *CHI:

  MLU (xxx, yyy and www are EXCLUDED from the utterance and morpheme counts):

      Number of: utterances = 774, morphemes = 2870

      Ratio of morphemes over utterances = 3.708

      Standard deviation = 2.546

_________________________________________________________________

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vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

>From file <childes/Eng-NA/Brown/Adam/020430.cha>

MLU for Speaker: *CHI:

  MLU (xxx, yyy and www are EXCLUDED from the utterance and morpheme counts):

      Number of: utterances = 837, morphemes = 3679

      Ratio of morphemes over utterances = 4.395

      Standard deviation = 3.146

_________________________________________________________________

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

>From file <childes/Eng-NA/Brown/Adam/020512.cha>

MLU for Speaker: *CHI:

  MLU (xxx, yyy and www are EXCLUDED from the utterance and morpheme counts):

      Number of: utterances = 810, morphemes = 3392

      Ratio of morphemes over utterances = 4.188

      Standard deviation = 3.216

_________________________________________________________________

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

>From file <childes/Eng-NA/Brown/Adam/020603.cha>

MLU for Speaker: *CHI:

  MLU (xxx, yyy and www are EXCLUDED from the utterance and morpheme counts):

      Number of: utterances = 849, morphemes = 4548

      Ratio of morphemes over utterances = 5.357

      Standard deviation = 4.005

_________________________________________________________________

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

>From file <childes/Eng-NA/Brown/Adam/020617.cha>

MLU for Speaker: *CHI:

  MLU (xxx, yyy and www are EXCLUDED from the utterance and morpheme counts):

      Number of: utterances = 635, morphemes = 4197

      Ratio of morphemes over utterances = 6.609

      Standard deviation = 4.429

_________________________________________________________________

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

>From file <childes/Eng-NA/Brown/Adam/020701.cha>

MLU for Speaker: *CHI:

  MLU (xxx, yyy and www are EXCLUDED from the utterance and morpheme counts):

      Number of: utterances = 853, morphemes = 4596

      Ratio of morphemes over utterances = 5.388

      Standard deviation = 3.860

_________________________________________________________________

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

>From file <childes/Eng-NA/Brown/Adam/020714.cha>

MLU for Speaker: *CHI:

  MLU (xxx, yyy and www are EXCLUDED from the utterance and morpheme counts):

      Number of: utterances = 912, morphemes = 5096

      Ratio of morphemes over utterances = 5.588

      Standard deviation = 4.284

--

Peter Gordon
Pronouns: He/His/Him
Associate Professor
Biobehavioral Sciences and Human Development
Teachers College, Columbia University
525 West 120th Street<https://www.google.com/maps/search/525+West+120th+Street?entry=gmail&source=g>, Box 306
New York, NY 10027
Email  pgordon at tc.edu<mailto:pgordon at tc.edu> |  p: (212) 678-8162

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Peter Gordon
Pronouns: He/His/Him
Associate Professor
Biobehavioral Sciences and Human Development
Teachers College, Columbia University
525 West 120th Street, Box 306
New York, NY 10027
Email  pgordon at tc.edu<mailto:pgordon at tc.edu> |  p: (212) 678-8162

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