Systematicity over the course of early development: an analysis of phonological networks

Catherine Laing

Systematicity over the course of early development: an analysis of phonological networks

Language and Linguistic Science

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

This paper explores the early lexicons of nine infants acquiring English or French to determine the extent of systematicity in the early vocabulary, and how this changes over time. Network graphs are generated from the point of first word production in the data set until age 30 months. Two measures of systematicity - mean path length and clustering coefficient - are analysed to establish the extent to which the early productive lexicon consists of closely-connected clusters of similar-sounding forms. Results show that early production is highly systematic when compared to random networks, but that the network becomes more dispersed as it increases in size. Connectivity within the network is consistently higher for infants’ actual productions when compared with the adult target forms, and this effect increases over time. This suggests a systematic approach to production over the course of early development.

Original language	English
Journal	Language and Speech
Publication status	Accepted/In press - 17 Mar 2025

Bibliographical note

This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the University’s Research Publications and Open Access policy.

Embargoed Document

NetworkGraphs_accepted
Accepted author manuscript, 234 KB
Licence: CC BY
Embargo ends: 31/12/99

Cite this

@article{03efec74727e49c1b580902285277086,

title = "Systematicity over the course of early development: an analysis of phonological networks",

abstract = "This paper explores the early lexicons of nine infants acquiring English or French to determine the extent of systematicity in the early vocabulary, and how this changes over time. Network graphs are generated from the point of first word production in the data set until age 30 months. Two measures of systematicity - mean path length and clustering coefficient - are analysed to establish the extent to which the early productive lexicon consists of closely-connected clusters of similar-sounding forms. Results show that early production is highly systematic when compared to random networks, but that the network becomes more dispersed as it increases in size. Connectivity within the network is consistently higher for infants{\textquoteright} actual productions when compared with the adult target forms, and this effect increases over time. This suggests a systematic approach to production over the course of early development.",

author = "Catherine Laing",

note = "This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the University{\textquoteright}s Research Publications and Open Access policy. ",

year = "2025",

month = mar,

day = "17",

language = "English",

journal = "Language and Speech",

issn = "0023-8309",

publisher = "SAGE",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Systematicity over the course of early development

T2 - an analysis of phonological networks

AU - Laing, Catherine

N1 - This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the University’s Research Publications and Open Access policy.

PY - 2025/3/17

Y1 - 2025/3/17

N2 - This paper explores the early lexicons of nine infants acquiring English or French to determine the extent of systematicity in the early vocabulary, and how this changes over time. Network graphs are generated from the point of first word production in the data set until age 30 months. Two measures of systematicity - mean path length and clustering coefficient - are analysed to establish the extent to which the early productive lexicon consists of closely-connected clusters of similar-sounding forms. Results show that early production is highly systematic when compared to random networks, but that the network becomes more dispersed as it increases in size. Connectivity within the network is consistently higher for infants’ actual productions when compared with the adult target forms, and this effect increases over time. This suggests a systematic approach to production over the course of early development.

AB - This paper explores the early lexicons of nine infants acquiring English or French to determine the extent of systematicity in the early vocabulary, and how this changes over time. Network graphs are generated from the point of first word production in the data set until age 30 months. Two measures of systematicity - mean path length and clustering coefficient - are analysed to establish the extent to which the early productive lexicon consists of closely-connected clusters of similar-sounding forms. Results show that early production is highly systematic when compared to random networks, but that the network becomes more dispersed as it increases in size. Connectivity within the network is consistently higher for infants’ actual productions when compared with the adult target forms, and this effect increases over time. This suggests a systematic approach to production over the course of early development.

M3 - Article

SN - 0023-8309

JO - Language and Speech

JF - Language and Speech

ER -