Lexical and statistical reflections over the statements of preschool children. Part 1 – frequent vocabulary Cover Image

Refleksje leksykalno-statystyczne nad wypowiedziami dzieci w wieku przedszkolnym. Część 1 – słownictwo częste
Lexical and statistical reflections over the statements of preschool children. Part 1 – frequent vocabulary

Author(s): Małgorzata Święcicka
Subject(s): Lexis, Semantics, Western Slavic Languages
Published by: Towarzystwo Miłośników Języka Polskiego
Keywords: statistical linguistics; children’s dictionary; parts of speech; semantics;

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this essay is to characterize statistically frequent words in a pre-school children’s dictionary, including both their functional and semantic structure. Analyses conducted in the field of statistical linguistics and linguistic semantics confirm the small share of frequent words in the dictionary and their significant role in the structure of spoken texts. Frequent entries are mostly autosemantic words, especially nouns and verbs. On the other hand, frequent auxiliary words, although not very numerous, are characterized by high ranks and text frequencies. The dictionary is based on representative meaning groups that reflect the child’s world, experiences and feelings. The observed quantitative and qualitative features of the children’s frequent dictionary confirm the statistical regularities of the texts of other varieties of Polish, they are consistent with the properties of the natural language, the spoken style and the developmental properties of the child’s speech.

  • Issue Year: 2022
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 77-92
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: Polish