The company that words keep: comparing the statistical structure of child- versus adult-directed language*

@article{Hills2012TheCT,
  title={The company that words keep: comparing the statistical structure of child- versus adult-directed language*},
  author={Thomas T. Hills},
  journal={Journal of Child Language},
  year={2012},
  volume={40},
  pages={586 - 604}
}
  • Thomas T. Hills
  • Published 14 May 2012
  • Linguistics, Psychology
  • Journal of Child Language
ABSTRACT Does child-directed language differ from adult-directed language in ways that might facilitate word learning? Associative structure (the probability that a word appears with its free associates), contextual diversity, word repetitions and frequency were compared longitudinally across six language corpora, with four corpora of language directed at children aged 1 ; 0 to 5 ; 0, and two adult-directed corpora representing spoken and written language. Statistics were adjusted relative to… 
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