Child language database project for the study of morphology and lexicon and integration with the Child Language Data Consortium

Abstract

The main goal of this research project is the construction of the Palavreando database: a database of naturalistic and longitudinal speech data, aiming to enable and promote studies on the early development of morphology and lexicon in children speaking Brazilian portuguese. More specifically, we aim to: i. produce descriptive and theoretical studies on the acquisition and development of various lexical and/or morphological phenomena in Brazilian Portuguese; ii. produce orthographic transcriptions in CHAT format for the Santos Corpus using the CLAN software; iii. Produce transcriptions of morphological lines in MOR format for the Santos Corpus using the CLAN software and, finally, iv. encourage, through performance data (i.e. language acquisition data), discussions about the psychological reality of theoretical models of lexicon and morphology. The proposed discussions are part of a larger LabLinC project which explores performance data against linguistic theories. More specifically, in the theoretical-descriptive scope, the present project is guided by the following research questions: i. How can children's initial lexical production targeting a variety of empirical phenomena suport or refute constructionist analyses of the architecture of grammar proposed by the Distributed Morphology approach? ii. As a model, this approach can shed light on the morphological and morphosyntactic phenomena present in the early lexicon of children. In order to accomplish our goals, we partner with LEAL (Laboratory of Studies in Language Acquisition) at the University of São Paulo. Through this partnership, we aim to contribute to the establishment of a Child Language Data Consortium in the State of São Paulo (USP/Unifesp/Unisantos) coordinated by Dr. Raquel Santana Santos. (AU)