Abstract
Nouns and verbs are considered as fundamental categories of lexical development, and there are contradicting views on the order of the acquisition. One view claims that nouns are acquired earlier than verbs and this primacy of nouns can be attributed to perceptual-conceptual constraints from a linguistic point of view, on the other hand, nouns and verbs are the lexical units which categorically highlight language-general and language-specific characteristics. These language-specific characteristics have motivated this research because of the different typological characteristics between Turkish and Dutch in terms of nouns and verbs. The aim of this study is two-fold: to investigate the Dutch and Turkish lexicon of Turkish-Dutch bilingual children with respect to noun-verb categories and to consider the role of gender. Our sample comprised 55 Turkish-Dutch bilingual children aged between 9 and 36 months. We found that age, language and gender are at play during early lexical development. Vocabulary develops after 12 months and nouns are prioritized over verbs both in comprehension and production.
Appendix 1
Lexical categories and gestures in the T-CDI-I and in the N- CDI-I.
| N-CDI | T-CDI | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Total vocabulary | 434 | 418 | |
| Items in the categories | |||
| 1. | Sound effects & animal sounds | 17 | 10 |
| 2. | Vehicles | 12 | 7 |
| 3. | Toys | 11 | 8 |
| 4. | Animal names | 38 | 17 |
| 5. | Food and drinks | 41 | 43 |
| 6. | Clothing | 21 | 18 |
| 7. | Words about time | 7 | 6 |
| 8. | Body parts | 21 | 17 |
| 10. | Games and routines | 17 | 31 |
| 11. | Question words | 4 | 7 |
| 12. | Quantifiers and articles | 6 | 8 |
| 13. | Pronouns | 10 | 12 |
| 14. | Small household items | 36 | 27 |
| 15. | Descriptive words | 35 | 25 |
| 16. | Action words | 57 | 95 |
| 17. | Outside things & places to go | 35 | 21+13 |
| 18. | People | 19 | 21 |
| 19. | Prepositions & localizations | 14 | 10 |
Appendix 2
Lexical categories in the T-CDI-II and in the N-CDI-II.
| N-CDI | T-CDI | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Total vocabulary | 702 | 711 | |
| Items in the categories | |||
| 1. | Sound effects & animal sounds | 21 | 13 |
| 2. | Vehicles | 17 | 14 |
| 3. | Toys | 19 | 20 |
| 4. | Animal names | 47 | 41 |
| 5. | Food and drinks | 69 | 66 |
| 6. | Clothing | 29 | 32 |
| 7. | Words about time | 15 | 13 |
| 8. | Body parts | 31 | 27 |
| 9. | Furniture and rooms | 34 | 27 |
| 10. | Games and routines | 26 | 40 |
| 11. | Question words | 7 | 12 |
| 12. | Quantifiers and articles | 16 | 23 |
| 13. | Pronouns | 23 | 21 |
| 14. | Small household items | 52 | 33 |
| 15. | Descriptive words | 60 | 61 |
| 16. | Action words | 106 | 146 |
| 17. | Outside things | 28 | 37 |
| 18. | Places to go | 23 | 25 |
| 19. | People | 29 | 32 |
| 20. | Prepositions & localizations | 25 | 21 |
| 21. | Auxiliaries | 19 | - |
| 22. | Conjunctions | 6 | 7 |
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