Publication:

Analysis of characteristics of semantics of spoken language in normally developing Hindi speaking children

Background There appears to be a lack of database of and dearth of studies focusing on the characteristics of semantics in Hindi speaking school aged children. Such a data base will be useful for building vocabulary for language disordered children and for constructing AAC boards for non-verbal children. Hence, it is essential to study the characteristics of semantics of normally developing children. This paper focuses on describing the semantic characteristics of spoken language in Hindi speaking children.

Methods 200 normally developing Hindi speaking children within the age group of 3 - 7 years were shown and instructed to describe three validated pictures of daily events. The responses were recorded and transcribed.  Analyses included type-token ratio, frequency of occurrence and comparisons between different word classes.

Results Percentage of nouns is highest followed by verbs, pronouns, adjectives. Frequency of occurrence of words increases with increase in age. The common words with high frequency of occurrence are hƐ, hũ, rΛhe, rΛha, rΛhi, dƷa, ɔr, khel, gaɖi, log, pe, ke.  There appears to be marked increase in different classes of words, one at 4 yrs of age (after Sr. KG) and other at 6 yrs of age (standard I).

Conclusions One of the highlighting features of this study is the huge database of semantics (of spoken language) collected from 200 school going children.  Creating such a database and utilizing it for assessing language of the disordered population appears to be the need of the hour.