MLU for languages with complex morphology

[Isa Barriere]

I meant to add:

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.

Good morning,
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?

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.

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).

Isabelle Barriere, PhD


On Mon, May 20, 2013 at 7:37 AM, Isa Barriere <barriere.isa at gmail.com>wrote:

> Good morning,
> 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?
>
> 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.
>
> 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).
>
> Isabelle Barriere, PhD
>

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