In a seminal study, Cameron-Faulkner et al. made two important observations about utterance-level constructions in English child-directed speech (CDS). First, they observed that canonical in/transitive sentences are surprisingly infrequent in child-direct speech (given that SVO word order is often thought to play a key role in the acquisition of English syntax). Second, they found that many CDS constructions are introduced by a lexical frame (such as Let’s. . ., There is . . ., or What do you . . .?). Using a much larger and more diverse dataset than Cameron-Faulkner et al., this study shows that CDS constructions vary with two important factors: (1) the interactive situation and (2) children’s age. While canonical in/transitive sentences are not particularly frequent in free toy play sessions, they are predominant in other social situations (e.g. during mealtimes and shared book reading sessions) and they increase in frequency as children get older. Furthermore, our data show that the different CDS constructions occur with different types of frames that vary in length and structure. Many CDS constructions include a short lexical frame consisting of one or two words, but questions are often introduced by extensive frames formed from a small set of lexical items that follow a power-law distribution. Considering these findings, we argue that the lexical and structural properties of CDS constructions are likely to facilitate the acquisition of English grammar and, in particular, the acquisition of questions.

Bastian Bunzeck

Holger Diessel

First Language

First Language is an international peer reviewed journal that publishes the highest quality original research in child language acquisition. Child language research is multidisciplinary and this is reflected in the contents of the journal: research from diverse theoretical and methodological traditions is welcome. Authors from a wide range of disciplines - including psychology, linguistics, anthropology, cognitive science, neuroscience, communication, sociology and education - are regularly represented in our pages. Empirical papers range from individual case studies, through experiments, observational/ naturalistic, analyses of CHILDES corpora, to parental surveys.

First Language is an international peer-reviewed journal dedicated to publishing high-quality original research in the field of child language acquisition. Child language research is multidisciplinary, which is reflected in the journal's content: we welcome studies from diverse theoretical and methodological traditions. Our pages regularly feature contributions from authors across a wide range of disciplines, including psychology, linguistics, anthropology, cognitive science, neuroscience, communication, sociology, and education. Empirical papers range from individual case studies and experiments to observational/naturalistic studies, analyses of CHILDES corpora, and parental surveys.

《First Language》是一本国际同行评审期刊，致力于发表儿童语言习得领域的高质量原创研究。儿童语言研究是一个多学科的领域，这一点在期刊的内容中得到了体现：我们欢迎来自不同理论和方法传统的研究。我们的页面上定期刊登来自心理学、语言学、人类学、认知科学、神经科学、传播学、社会学和教育等多个学科的作者的研究。实证论文的范围从个案研究、实验、观察/自然主义研究，到对CHILDES语料库的分析和家长调查。

Category	Quartile
文学	2
文学, 语言与语言学	3
文学, 语言学	4
文学, 心理学发育	4

The richness of the stimulus: Constructional variation and development in child-directed speech

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PSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENTAL	4