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CHILDES

• Child Language Data Exchange System• Founded 1984 in Concord MA• Director: Brian MacWhinney macw@mac.com• Programmers: Leonid Spektor, Franklin Chen• 4500 Members• 130 corpora• 1500 published articles

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Why study child language?

• Special Gift -- Universals• Typology -- Variation• Emergentism -- Processes• Language Disorders -- Differences• Socialization, Literacy• Language Maintenance

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Universals

• Are there basic patterns to babbling?• Are early word orders universal?• Does UG give children a universal set of

functional categories?• Is the vocabulary spurt universal?

We need LOTS of data

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Differences

• Do children have individual styles?• Gestalt vs. Analytic• Enactive (1S) vs. Depictive (3S)

• Do children respond differentially to parental recasts?

• Do children vary in their match to cue validity?

Again, we need LOTS of data.

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Comparisons

• How should we match SLI children to normal controls -- MLU? Morphology, TTR

• How should we compare language socialization processes across social classes? Between cultures?

• How should we compare the course of development across languages? The case of Romance.

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Getting Set Up Connect to http://childes.psy.cmu.edu

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Ground Rules

• Ethical use, informed consent• Levels of permission• Respect for dignity of participants• Respect for contributors• Requirement to cite sources• Requirement to contribute data

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Info-CHILDES and Membership

• Subscribe to kelley.sacco@cmu.edu• Archived at LinguistList• Info-CHIBolts for nuts and bolts• Membership list• IASCL Membership

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Why no handout?“Overviews” link has this PPT presentation

CHILDES is now fully electronic. No more paper.

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Assumed computer platform

• A “modern” XML browser, IE5, Navigator 7, Safari, Firefox

• QuickTime and Flash• Acrobat Reader• Zip• Unicode fonts• PPT

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Getting Set Up

• Download CLAN from Programs link

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Which version of CLAN?• Windows 98 - clanwin.exe• Windows 2000/XP - clanwinu.exe• OSX - CLANX• Grab Arial Unicode while you are here too

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Installing

• Mac• Trash old version

• Unstuff and drag new version anywhere

• Windows• Add/remove programs to remove old versions

• Autoinstall to c:\childes\clan

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Windows issues

• You can work in c:\childes• But your administrator may have this

locked.• So, you may need shortcuts.• Windows IPA is difficult.

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Downloading Manuals

CHAT, CLAN

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Getting Started

• Open CLAN Manual to Chapter 2• Double-click application• Control-D to open Commands Window• Set Working Directory to

c:\childes\clan\lib\samples

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Should look like this:

Windows will be c:\childes\clan\lab\samples

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Run FREQ

• Freq sample.cha • Hit RUN or carriage return• In output, does “want” occur 3 times?

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Interface Features

• Help• CLAN• Files In• Recall• Set MOR, Lib, Output directories

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Files In

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Building Commands

• mlu +t*CHI +f sample.cha• mlu *.cha• Wildcards• File output• *.cha

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Changing Directories

• Set Working to: ne32

combo +t*MOT +s"is^*ing" *.cha• Set Working to: samples

kwal +sbunny +w2 -w2 0042.cha• Triple click on output line to go back to

source file

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GEM

• Set Working to: Workshop• GEM +s* pau001.cha• Open output, play audio

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Exercises - Chapter 8

• MLU50 • mlu +t*CHI +z50u +f *.cha

• MLU5 • maxwd +t*CHI +g1 +c5 +dl 68.cha | mlu >

68.ml5.cex

• TTR• freq +t*CHI +s"*-%%" +f *.cha

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BatchFile

• maxwd +t*CHI +g1 +c5 +dl 14.cha | mlu > 14.ml5.cex• maxwd +t*CHI +g1 +c5 +dl 55.cha | mlu > 55.ml5.cex• maxwd +t*CHI +g1 +c5 +dl 66.cha | mlu > 66.ml5.cex• maxwd +t*CHI +g1 +c5 +dl 68.cha | mlu > 68.ml5.cex• maxwd +t*CHI +g1 +c5 +dl 98.cha | mlu > 98.ml5.cex

• Batch batch.cex• Or just run by highlighting in Commands (Windows)

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Tables

Child MLU50

MLU5 TTR MLT Ratio

14 0.10 0.12 1.84 -0.90

55 -0.70 -0.65 -0.15 -0.94

66 -0.25 -0.19 -0.68 -1.14

68 3.10 2.56 -0.67 1.60

98 -0.95 -1.11 -0.55 0.31

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The Editor

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Playing a linked file

• Esc-8• Esc-A• Cont-Click• F5

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Linking a File - F5

• Cursor on *FAT

• Find file• F5• Press space

for each utterance

• Save

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F5 Tricks

• Go back to last good link• Space quickly through contained overlap• If a bullet is missing, cut and paste an old

one• For precision, try Sonic Mode

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Sonic Mode

• Esc-0 to start• Highlight area• Shift-click to move edge• Have cursor on line in

file• S to insert time marks

• Triple click a linked sentence

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Transcribing

• Open new window (Command-N)• Insert headers

• @Begin

• @Languages: en

• @Participants: CHI Target_Child, MOT Mother, FAT Father, ROS Brother

• @Date

• F5 with space at each utterance• Go back and transcribe each bullet (c-click)• Adjust time marks using Esc-A

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CHECK

• CHECK is the most important CLAN program

• Internal: Esc-L• External: check *.cha• External CHECK provides fuller control

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Options

• Backup• Wrapping• Line Numbers• CHECK

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More Options

Line numbers F5 bullets SoundAnalyzer

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Coder's Editor

• Open barry.cha• Esc-0• Cursor on first

line• Open

codeshar.cut• %spa• Insert

$NIA:AC:IN

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Coder's Editor Commands

• F1 finish current tier and go to the next• Esc-c finish coding current tier• Esc-t restrict coding to a particular speaker• Esc-Esc go on to the next speaker• Esc-s rotate subcodes• Control-g cancel illegal command

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Send to Praat

Open Praat, Click before link, Send to Praat, Run Analysis

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Learning to Digitize

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IPA- IPAKeys - Mac

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IPA- KeyMan/SIL-Windows

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Searching, Replacing

• Cont-R, Cont-F• Space, No, !, control-G

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Fixing Things

• CHSTRING• INSERT (inserts @ID headers)• FIXIT• LONGTIER• FIXBULLETS• REN• COMBTIER

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Tour of English MOR Files

• Download a copy• A-rules• C-rules• Sf.cut• Lexicon

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Running MOR

• Set MOR directory• mor +xi (dogs)• mor +xl barry.cha• Open barry.ulx.cex• Fix problems using KWAL• mor *.cha

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POST

• mor barry.cha +1 or else• mor barry.cha and then• ren *.mor.cex *.cha +f• post *.cha +1

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CHAT

• What is an utterance?• What is a word?• Tour of the CHAT manual

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Web Browsing of Video

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Some examples

• Forrester• Rollins• Yasmin• Paulo• Brent, MacWhinney• Classroom - JLS

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Rollins Coding

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ProjectPad

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Naked Video

• Terabytes of video • No transcripts• Occasional sign posts• Sparse speech recognition• Automatic video analysis

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Collaborative Commentary

• Streaming Media• TimeLine and Transcript Display• Stickies for comments• Options for display of other comments• Ontology of comments• Comment database

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Evidential Database

• Theses pointing to evidence through media• Supporting pointers to PDFs• Publishable as special issues