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Type/Token Ratios: what do they really tell us?*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Brian Richards
Brian Richards*
Affiliation:
University of Bristol
*
School of Education Research Unit, University of Bristol, 22 Berkeley Square, Bristol BS8 1HP, UK.
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Abstract

Type/Token Ratios have been extensively used in child language research as an index of lexical diversity. This paper shows that the measure has frequently failed to discriminate between children at widely different stages of language development, and that the ratio may in fact fall as children get older. It is suggested here that such effects are caused by a negative, though non-linear, relationship between sample size (i.e. number of tokens) and Type/Token Ratio. Effects of open and closed class items are considered and an alternative Verbal Diversity measure is examined. Standardization of the number of tokens before computing Type/Token Ratios is recommended.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , June 1987 , pp. 201 - 209
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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Footnotes

*

Data referred to in this paper originates from research supported by the ESRC (C00428325005). I would like to thank Peter Robinson, Gilbert Davies and Bencie Woll for their comments on an earlier draft, and Mary Gutfreund for her assistance and helpful suggestions.

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