--- title: "Morphosyntactic Analysis of the CHILDES and TalkBank Corpora" description: "The paper describes the toolchain that adds morphological and syntactic annotation to… 14 references, cited by 2 papers here." authors: ["Brian MacWhinney"] year: 2012 venue: "Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC'12)" source: "https://aclanthology.org/L12-1353/" licence: "CC BY-NC 4.0 (ELRA, LREC proceedings)" licence_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/" summary_licence: "Elamur Cosmic License" canonical: "https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/macwhinney-2012-morphosyntactic-analysis-childes-talkbank-corpora/" --- [Elamur Research](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/macwhinney-2012-morphosyntactic-analysis-childes-talkbank-corpora/) [home](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [papers](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/) / [2012](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/2012/page/2/) / Morphosyntactic Analysis of the CHILDES and TalkBank Corpora # Morphosyntactic Analysis of the CHILDES and TalkBank Corpora **Authors:** [Brian MacWhinney](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/brian-macwhinney/) · **Year:** 2012 · **Venue:** [Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC'12)](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/lrec/) ([LREC 2012](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/lrec/2012/)) · **Publisher:** [European Language Resources Association (ELRA)](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/publishers/european-language-resources-association-elra/) · **Licence:** [CC BY-NC 4.0 (ELRA, LREC proceedings)](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) **Links:** [Publisher's page](https://aclanthology.org/L12-1353/) · [PDF](https://aclanthology.org/L12-1353.pdf) · [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W2250443695) **Citations:** 3 citations (OpenAlex, 2026-10-14) · 2 in our library, of the 141,840 papers whose bibliographies we read ## Summary The paper describes the toolchain that adds morphological and syntactic annotation to spoken-language transcripts in CHILDES and the wider TalkBank collection. CHILDES holds about 60 million words of child–adult talk in 26 languages, and TalkBank about 63 million words of adult conversation. Off-the-shelf taggers fit poorly. Many were closed-source and built for written text, and they ignored conversational material such as interjections, onomatopoeia, babbling and code mixing. Finite-state tools also required more programming skill than many linguists have. The author presents MOR, a tagger that works by generation. Its lexicons are plain text files that non-programmers can extend. Allomorphy rules (arules) compile a runtime lexicon stored in a trie, and concatenation rules (crules) assemble morphemes into analyses of whole words. A companion program, GRASP, adds dependency relations. MOR currently covers 11 languages, while GRASP dependency analysis has been built for three. For English, tagging accuracy is 98% on adult speech and 97% on child speech. The annotated corpora already support computational models of language acquisition and automatic clinical profiles such as DSS and IPSyn. ## Key points - Data: TalkBank comes from 128 projects collected over 40 years and is transcribed in CHAT, which converts to TalkBank XML. Only about a quarter of CHILDES transcripts are linked to media. - MOR grammars cover English, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, French, Italian, German, Dutch, Danish and Hebrew; Cantonese-English bilingual corpora serve as the bilingual case study. They are distributed through CLAN. - The English lexicon is split into 87 files, one per POS type, and 27 of these are compound types (e.g., noun+noun vs noun+participle). - The %mor notation uses specific marks: - `#` after prefixes and `|` between category and stem; - `-` for transparent affixes and `&` for fusional ones; - `~` for clitics, as in `mod|do~neg|not`; - `+` for compounds. - GRASP for English uses 42 grammatical relations plus 13 ellipsis relations. Chinese and Spanish need only small changes, while Japanese adds eight relations. Output is compared against gold-standard files with TRNFIX. ## Interesting ideas - MOR generates all allomorphs ahead of time into a trie instead of recognising word forms, which makes overgeneration easier to control and debugging output more readable. - Rule systems are split by interaction type: arules are strictly ordered with specific rules first, and one firing blocks later ones without chaining. Crules, by contrast, all fire in parallel, and a thread survives only if it covers the whole word. ## For Mova How these ideas could serve Mova, our small open language model — its files, stages and tests: - **I1** (tokens): The `en` morphology crate could precompile every allomorph of each lemma into a trie, so each analysis traces back to a specific lexicon entry plus a specific rule. - A lock-and-key feature check blocks overgeneration: a rule requires a feature to be absent (e.g., `![gem no]`), and exceptional entries like "put" carry that feature, so no "putting"-style error appears. — (tokens): Irregular lemmas could carry explicit blocking features rather than exception lists hidden in code, which keeps every refusal explainable. - **I2** (tokens): Mova could adopt this split, with deterministic ordered rules for stem variants and exhaustive parallel analysis that keeps only complete-word parses. - Fixed multiword function words such as "so that" and "in order to" are treated as single tokens (`so_that`, `in_order_to`), which the author reports improved syntactic analysis. — (tree): Merging such connectives before parsing could reduce spurious attachments, as long as a conversion step maps them back to UD's `fixed` relation. - A fast whole-corpus run (`mor +xl`) lists every word the grammar fails to recognise, which turns lexicon maintenance into a routine coverage check. — (learn): Mova could run an unknown-word report after each lexicon or corpus change, as a cheap regression signal before training silver data. *Our summary of the paper, in our own words — not its text. The work belongs to its authors; read it at the links above.* ## Institutions - [Carnegie Mellon University](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/universities/carnegie-mellon-university/) — University, Pittsburgh, United States · 365 works · 158,048 citations 📚 Shelves (6): [🖥️ Computer Science](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/computer-science/) · 9,085 works · [🤖 Artificial Intelligence](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/computer-science/artificial-intelligence/) · 8,888 works · [🎭 Arts and Humanities](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/arts-and-humanities/) · 9,296 works · [🗣️ Language and Linguistics](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/arts-and-humanities/language-and-linguistics/) · 9,206 works · [💭 Psychology](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/psychology/) · 798 works · [💭 Developmental and Educational Psychology](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/psychology/developmental-and-educational-psychology/) · 260 works ## Cite Cite as: Brian MacWhinney. 2012. Morphosyntactic Analysis of the CHILDES and TalkBank Corpora. Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC'12). The paper itself, not this page. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. ```bibtex @inproceedings{macwhinney2012morphosyntactic, title = {{Morphosyntactic Analysis of the CHILDES and TalkBank Corpora}}, author = {Brian MacWhinney}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC'12)}, year = {2012}, doi = {10.63317/2i3fu829seat}, url = {https://doi.org/10.63317/2i3fu829seat} } ``` - [← previous First Results in a Study Evaluating Pre-annotation and Correction Propagation for Machine-Assisted Syriac Morphological Analysis](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/felt-2012-first-results-study-evaluating-pre/) - [next → A Morphologically Annotated Hebrew CHILDES Corpus](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/albert-2012-morphologically-annotated-hebrew-childes-corpus/) - [↑ back to papers of 2012](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/2012/page/2/) ## References 14 references, 0 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet. 1. Beasley, K., & Karttunen, L. (2003). Finite state morphology. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Beasley%2C+K%2E%2C+%26+Karttunen%2C+L%2E+%282003%29%2E+Finite+state+morphology%2E+Stanford%2C+CA%3A+CSLI+Publications%2E) 2. Berlitz. (2005). Berlitz Italian verbs handbook: 2nd Edition. New York: Berlitz. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Berlitz%2E+%282005%29%2E+Berlitz+Italian+verbs+handbook%3A+2nd+Edition%2E+New+York%3A+Berlitz%2E) 3. Borensztajn, G., Zuidema, W., & Bod, R. (2009). Children's grammars grow more abstract with age - Evidence from an automatic procedure for identifying the productive units of language. Topics in Cognitive Science, 1, 175-188. [↗](https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1756-8765.2008.01009.x) 4. Fredkin, E. (1960). Trie memory. Communications of the ACM, 3, 490-499. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Fredkin%2C+E%2E+%281960%29%2E+Trie+memory%2E+Communications+of+the+ACM%2C+3%2C+490%2D499%2E) 5. Freudenthal, D., Pine, J., & Gobet, F. (2010). Explaining quantitative variation in the rate of Optional Infinitive errors across languages: A comparison of MOSAIC and the Variational Learning Model. Journal of Child Language, 37, 643-669. [↗](https://doi.org/10.1017/s0305000909990523) 6. Lee, L. (1974). Developmental Sentence Analysis. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Lee%2C+L%2E+%281974%29%2E+Developmental+Sentence+Analysis%2E+Evanston%2C+IL%3A+Northwestern+University+Press%2E) 7. Li, P., Zhao, X., & MacWhinney, B. (2007). Dynamic self-organization and early lexical development in children. Cognitive Science, 31, 581-612. [↗](https://doi.org/10.1080/15326900701399905) 8. MacWhinney, B. (2000). The CHILDES Project: Tools for Analyzing Talk. 3rd Edition. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=MacWhinney%2C+B%2E+%282000%29%2E+The+CHILDES+Project%3A+Tools+for+Analyzing+Talk%2E+3rd+Edition%2E+Mahwah%2C+NJ%3A+Lawrence+Erlbaum+Associates%2E) 9. Miller, J., & Chapman, R. (1983). SALT: Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts, User's Manual. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Miller%2C+J%2E%2C+%26+Chapman%2C+R%2E+%281983%29%2E+SALT%3A+Systematic+Analysis+of+Language+Transcripts%2C+User%27s+Manual%2E+Madison%2C+WI%3A+University+of+Wisconsin+Press%2E) 10. Perfors, A., Tenenbaum, J. B., & Wonnacott, E. (2010). Variability, negative evidence, and the acquisition of verb argument constructions. Journal of Child Language, 37, 607-642. [↗](https://doi.org/10.1017/s0305000910000012) 11. Sagae, K., Davis, E., Lavie, A., MacWhinney, B., & Wintner, S. (2010). Morphosyntactic annotation of CHILDES transcripts. Journal of Child Language, 37, 705-729. [↗](https://doi.org/10.1017/s0305000909990407) 12. Sagae, K., Lavie, A., & MacWhinney, B. (2005). Automatic measurement of syntactic development in child language Proceedings of the 43rd Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (pp. 197-204). Ann Arbor: ACL. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Sagae%2C+K%2E%2C+Lavie%2C+A%2E%2C+%26+MacWhinney%2C+B%2E+%282005%29%2E+Automatic+measurement+of+syntactic+development+in+child+language+Proceedings+of+the+43rd+Meeting+of+the+Association+for+Computational+Linguistics+%28pp%2E+19) 13. Waterfall, H., Sandbank, B., Onnis, L., & Edelman, S. (2010). An empirical generative framework for computational modeling of language acquisition. Journal of Child Language, 37, 671-703. [↗](https://doi.org/10.1017/s0305000910000024) 14. Wintner, S. (2007). Finite-state technology as a programming environment. In A. Gelbukh (Ed.), CICLing 2007, LNCS 4394 (pp. 97-106). Heidelberg: Springer. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Wintner%2C+S%2E+%282007%29%2E+Finite%2Dstate+technology+as+a+programming+environment%2E+In+A%2E+Gelbukh+%28Ed%2E%29%2C+CICLing+2007%2C+LNCS+4394+%28pp%2E+97%2D106%29%2E+Heidelberg%3A+Springer%2E) *Updated 24 October 2026*