How Templatic Is Arabic Input to Children? The Role of Child-Directed-Speech in the Acquisition of Semitic Morpho-Phonology
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10255891 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ghada Khattab (0000-0002-8451-8135, Newcastle University, corresponding author), Tamar Keren‐portnoy (0000-0002-7258-2404, University of York) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 69 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 34-53 |
| Publication date | 2026-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Language and Speech (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0023-8309 • E-ISSN: 1756-6053 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00238309241311230 |
| PMID | 39846401 |
| OpenAlex | W4406735681 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 17 |
Semitic languages such as Hebrew and Arabic are known for having a non-concatenative morphology: words are typically built of a combination of a consonantal root, typically tri-consonantal (e.g., k-t-b “related to writing” in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA)), with a prosodic template. Research on Hebrew language development suggests early sensitivity to frequently occurring templates. For the Arabic dialects, little is known about whether implicit sensitivity to non-concatenative morphology develops at a young age through exposure to speech, and how templatic the spoken language is in comparison to MSA. We focus on Lebanese Arabic. We hypothesized that prolonged contact with French and English may have “diluted” the salience of roots and patterns in the input. We used three different corpora of adult-directed-speech (ADS), child-directed-speech (CDS), and child speech. We analyzed the root and pattern structures in the 50 most frequent Lebanese Arabic word types in each corpus. We found fewer words with templatic patterns than expected among the most frequent words in ADS (35/50), even fewer in CDS (23/50) and still fewer in the children’s target words (15/50). In addition, only a minority contains three root consonants in their surface forms: 22 in ADS, 15 in CDS, and only 7 in words targeted by the children. We conclude that Semitic structure is less evident in either input to children or words targeted by children aged 1–3 than has been assumed. We discuss implications for the development of sensitivity to templatic structure among Lebanese-acquiring children
Arabic · Arabic languages · Cognitive psychology · Hebrew · Linguistics · Phonology · Root (linguistics · Salience (neuroscience · Semitic languages · Language Development and Disorders · Philosophy · Phonetics and Phonology Research · Psychology · Reading and Literacy Development
A First Language
Prosodic patterns in Hebrew child-directed speech
The relation of children's single word utterances to single word utterances in the input
Breaking into the Hebrew verb system
Infant Recognition of Hebrew Vocalic Word Patterns
Explaining dynamic morphological patterns in acquisition using Network Analysis
The route to the derivational verb family in Hebrew
Structure and Use in the Acquisition of Word Formation
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |