Grammar in picture-books: Syntactic complexity and diversity in the text of Japanese picture-books

Abstract

 This study investigates syntactic complexity and diversity in the text of Japanese picture-books and evaluates the extent to which picture-books can be considered as significant linguistic input for children’s language development. The text of fifteen picture-books for 2- and 3-year-old children was compared to the child-directed speech (CDS) by thirteen mothers, in terms of syntactic structures, argument ellipsis, and particles attached to overt arguments. Results revealed that the sentences used in the picture-books involved complex as well as simple structures more frequently than the sentences used in CDS. Overt arguments and case particles attached to themwere also used more frequently in the picture-books than in CDS. These results suggest that picture-books could provide children with syntactically diverse and enriched input, which implies the possibility that picture-book reading may have positive effects on children’s grammatical development.