Lexicon Development in Bengali: A Cross- Linguistic Comparison using the Language Development Survey

Abstract

Language Development Delay is one of the significant development problems in children. When children do not reach the specific milestones of language development for their age, they are classified as slow talkers. For this study, we will focus on two language development issues, the issue of Universal vs Language Specific Patterns of Language Development, and the Delay vs Deviance issue for late talkers. The study aims to compare language development patterns in Bengali and English and also between late talkers and typical talkers of the same language. The Language Development Survey, a 310-word checklist, was used to collect data from day cares and hospital for this study. The results show significant effect

of language and gender and age on vocabulary scores. The results also show moderate cross- linguistic concordance between Bengali and English. These results suggest moderate similarities

in language development across languages and also that culture has a significant effect on language development, especially as children grow older and acquire more vocabulary.