Department of Otorhinolaryngology & Head and Neck Surgery, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Speech-Language Pathology & Audiology Division, Ghent University, Gent, Belgium.
Int J Lang Commun Disord. 2010 Jan-Feb;45(1):121-8. doi: 10.3109/13682820902745446.
The metalinguistic ability to cope with homonyms, that is, words having multiple unrelated meanings, emerges rather late in the course child language development. It is associated with specific neural activity and related to academic achievement and second language learning. This study is about homonyms that are at the same time homographs and homophones. For clinical purposes, it would be useful to have additional normative data on acquisition.
The goal of this study was to develop a measurement protocol for mastery of multiple literal meanings of homonymous nouns and to document Dutch-speaking children's performances during the final stages of child language development. Age and gender effects as well as the correlation with type token ratios in spontaneous speech will be examined.
METHODS & PROCEDURES: Twenty-one words having only one literal meaning, 19 homonyms, and 20 pseudo-words were presented to 801 children from the fourth, the fifth and the sixth or final grade of regular elementary schools. These children had no hearing or learning difficulties. Each test item was presented simultaneously in writing on a screen and as a spoken word. The task was to put each word into one of three possible categories: no meaning, just one literal meaning and more than one literal meaning. After item analysis, only the best items from the original corpus of 60 words were used to calculate a final score with. A 3 x 2 analysis of variance (ANOVA) was calculated to assess age and gender effects. The correlation between type token ratio results and multiple meaning mastery results was determined.
OUTCOMES & RESULTS: The ability to define a word correctly as homonymous clearly develops rather late in the course of language development and significant progress is being made during final elementary school years. Significant age and gender effects were found. The correlations with type token ratio results did not reach significance levels. Children were very accurate in identifying pseudo-words as meaningless items.
CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: Further research is needed to find out whether there actually is a genuine gender effect in the ability to reflect on words with multiple meanings. This ability is different from what is traditionally defined as active or passive vocabulary, because of the metalinguistic dimensions of the task. The findings in this study underpin the need for further exploration of metalinguistic aspects of vocabulary growth and language development in general, and for the development of appropriate test tools. A screening of multiple meaning mastery may be a valuable procedure to detect individuals in need of therapy and to help school counsellors in formulating a school career advice.
元语言能力能够应对同形异义词，即具有多个不相关含义的单词，在儿童语言发展过程中出现得较晚。它与特定的神经活动有关，并与学业成绩和第二语言学习有关。本研究涉及既是同形异义词又是同音异义词的同音字。出于临床目的，获得更多关于习得的规范数据将很有用。
本研究的目的是开发一种测量同形异义词名词多种字面意义掌握程度的测量方案，并记录荷兰语儿童在儿童语言发展的最后阶段的表现。将检查年龄和性别效应以及与自发言语中类型标记比率的相关性。
21 个只有一个字面意义的单词、19 个同音字和 20 个伪字被呈现给来自常规小学四年级、五年级和六年级或最后年级的 801 名儿童。这些儿童没有听力或学习困难。每个测试项目同时以书面形式和口头形式呈现在屏幕上。任务是将每个单词放入三个可能的类别之一：无意义、只有一个字面意义和多个字面意义。在项目分析之后，仅使用原始 60 个词库中的最佳项目来计算最终分数。使用 3x2 方差分析 (ANOVA) 来评估年龄和性别效应。确定类型标记比率结果与多义掌握结果之间的相关性。
正确定义为同音字的单词的能力在语言发展过程中明显发展得较晚，并且在最后几年的小学阶段取得了显著进展。发现了显著的年龄和性别效应。与类型标记比率结果的相关性没有达到显著水平。儿童非常准确地将伪字识别为无意义的项目。
需要进一步研究以确定在反映具有多种含义的单词的能力方面是否存在真正的性别效应。由于任务的元语言维度，这种能力与传统上定义的主动或被动词汇不同。本研究的发现支持进一步探索词汇增长和一般语言发展的元语言方面的需要，并开发适当的测试工具。多义掌握的筛选可能是一种有价值的程序，可以发现需要治疗的个体，并帮助学校辅导员制定学校职业建议。
