Early vocabulary development in Mandarin (Putonghua) and Cantonese
Twila Tardif2009, Journal of Child Language
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Abstract
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This research investigates early vocabulary development in Putonghua (Mandarin) and Cantonese, highlighting the differences in vocabulary exposure among children in Beijing and Hong Kong. The study compares the adaptations of Child Development Index (CDI) instruments for both languages, emphasizing the cultural and linguistic diversities intrinsic to each dialect. The findings demonstrate significant vocabulary differences influenced by sociolinguistic contexts, crucial for structuring effective language development assessments.
Key takeaways
- In keeping with general patterns of vocabulary growth (Fenson et al., 1993 ;Huttenlocher, Haight & Bryk, 1991), we would expect caregivers to report, for the period from 0 ; 8-2 ; 6 in Mandarin and Cantonese, a slow start for children in both languages from their first birthday on, succeeded by a rapidly increasing acceleration after six months.
- Despite the linguistic complexity of the territory, over 95 % of Hong Kong residents consider themselves to be native speakers of Cantonese, with high concentrations of English and Mandarin speakers living on Hong Kong Island and in the northern New Territories, respectively.
- In the following analyses, we will report on total expressive vocabulary in Mandarin and Cantonese for each of the age groups tested, aggregating information from Words and Gestures and Words and Sentences forms, as well as on the number of classifiers produced (twenty items for Beijing, nineteen items for the Hong Kong form) from the Words and Sentences form only.
- As can be seen in Figure 1, for both Cantonese and Mandarin, as expected, a slow beginning is evident for the accumulation of words in the child's spoken vocabulary, with a gradual increase from around 1 ;4 and a more rapid acceleration thereafter.
- In the following analyses, we replaced age with vocabulary size as the standard by which we compared Beijing and Hong Kong children and, as would be expected from the previous discussion about the differential use of classifiers in adult Mandarin and Cantonese (see also Erbaugh, 2006), the location effect was not only diminished, but reversed.
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