Variability and Consistency in Early Language Learning: The Wordbank Project

“Variability and Consistency in Early Language Learning is a tour de force. The scope of the topics covered through through the lens of parental report measures of early language development is remarkable. The authors have a total command of the extant literature, which motivates detailed and thoughtful exploration of this rich dataset. This marriage of theory and data makes me very excited to use this volume as the basis for future graduate seminars.”—Jenny Saffran, Professor of Psychology, University of Wisconsin–Madison“The era of big data in the study of language acquisition has officially begun! Frank and colleagues have used enormous amounts of data from the CDI to answer a number of theoretically interesting and important questions about children's early language, mostly using a web-based database and automated procedures. For the study of word learning, in particular, this book will be the necessary anchoring point for almost all future work.”—Michael Tomasello, James F. Bonk Distinguished Professor of Psychology, Duke University “Based on data from 29 languages and thousands of children, this impressive and systematic analysis shows in detail how early language development involves a ‘tightly woven’  developmental progression, along with room for variation that is predictable from input frequency, child gender, mother education, and unique features of the target language.”—Brian MacWhinney, Professor of Psychology and Modern Languages, Carnegie Mellon University