#children’slanguage

Vineeta Gupta and Nilanjana Banerji Children’s Dictionaries, Educational Division

Oxford University Press

Tuesday 12 April 2016

CHILDREN’S WORD OF THE YEAR 2015

hashtag #

The only known English children’s corpus in the world

• A large electronic database of children’s language, sourced from a vast variety of children’s literature, writing, and select websites

• It has language software tools that can analyse how children’s language behaves. It can identify word frequencies, grammatical structures, and child-related vocabulary

Oxford Children’s Corpus What is it?

• Lexicographers and linguists who use it for language research and dictionary compilation

• School book editors who use it to inform their literacy publishing

• Academic researchers in the departments of literature, psychology and education

• Marketing and PR who use it to engage with children, parents and teachers reinforcing Oxford’s message that language learning is fun as well as a necessary part of literacy, and social and cognitive success

Oxford Children’s Corpus Who is it for?

6

OCC-R

Oxford Children’s Corpus of Reading (writing for children)

OCC-E Oxford Children’s Corpus of Education (curriculum material)

OCC-W Oxford Children’s Corpus of Writing (writing by children)

www.historyonthenet.com www.classicreader.com

Oxford Children’s Corpus What’s in it?

• Some children’s top nouns:

people, book, friend, water, home, boy, girl

• Some adult’s top nouns:

company, group, point, case, country, government, problem

• Some children’s top verbs:

eat, cry, wish, laugh, hope, smile

• Some adult’s top verbs:

provide, pay, create, offer, decide, develop

Frequency Children’s language (Oxford Children’s Corpus) compared with adult language (Oxford English Corpus)

Oxford Children’s Corpus Analysis and Findings

Difference between children’s usage and adult usage:

Children’s Corpus – baron (nobleman)

Adult Corpus – baron (a powerful owner of an industry)

Children’s Corpus – terrible + secret, misfortune, storm

Adult Corpus – terrible + tragedy, mistake, blow

Children’s Corpus – wonderful + story, adventure, creature, discovery

Adult Corpus – wonderful + opportunity, gift, job, achievement

Children’s Corpus – see + nothing, flash, glimmer, ghost

Adult Corpus – see + movie, reason, doctor, difference

Oxford Children’s Corpus Analysis and Findings

• Chris Evans BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show (15 million listeners) run a 500 Words Short Story competition for 5-13 year-olds

• Entries are read and shortlisted by over

1000 teachers and volunteers from the National Literacy Trust/Scottish Book Trust

• Chris Evans and an expert panel of judges

select the winners from a shortlist of 50

• Final is held during the Hay Festival and winning stories are read by celebrities like Benedict Cumberbatch

Oxford Children’s Corpus and BBC Radio 2 500 Words

• OUP’s collaboration with the BBC began in

spring 2012 and continued for 5 years • Each year all the words areadded to the

children’s language database the Oxford Children’s Corpus and analysed by OUP

• A full report is prepared on children’s language usage and top findings are given to the BBC and all national and local newspapers

Oxford Children’s Corpus and BBC Radio 2 500 Words

Oxford Children’s Corpus and BBC Radio 2 500 Words

Kate was on Radio 2 Chris Evans Breakfast show

National and local television and radio

coverage

UNUSUAL TITLES • How biscuits, mustard and prune juice can save the world…

• If only I could switch my mum off

• The Curse of the Cake

• Agent Pork Chop

UNUSUAL STORY OPENERS

• It was the night I became a hero with my pyjamas inside out.

• Unfortunately I got out in the wrong place at the wrong time.

• There was a giraffe in our field one morning. Yes, you heard right, a giraffe.

Oxford Children’s Corpus and BBC Radio 2 500 Words 2012

DINOSAURS

• chocolateosaurus

• spottysaurus

• gigantosaurus

ITALIAN FOOD?

• Madame Linguine

• conchiglie spacecraft

• telescope made of penne

• 3 races called brie, gorgonzola, and cheddar

NAMES

• Sir Lostalot

• Charlie Chewsalot

• King Drunkenstein

• Prince Roastbeef

GADGETS

• fingerlaser

• zaporator

• shutdownotron

• takeovertheworldinator

Oxford Children’s Corpus and BBC Radio 2 500 Words 2012

Spelling: exited/exiting (excited/exciting) cloths (clothes)

invisable, thoght, disided, enourmas, minuets (minutes)

SPELLING, PUNCTUATION, AND GRAMMAR CHALLENGES

Punctuation: apostrophe’’’’’ exclamation mark!!!!!

Grammar: rised instead of rose striked instead of struck teached instead of taught thinked instead of thought

Oxford Children’s Corpus and BBC Radio 2 500 Words 2012

Top female character Cinderella

Top male character James Bond

Top TV show Top Gear

Top car Ferrari

Top new word gangnam

Top band One Direction

Top celebrity Chris Evans

Top athlete Usain Bolt

16

Oxford Children’s Corpus and BBC Radio 2 500 Words 2013

Oxford Children’s Corpus and BBC Radio 2 500 Words 2013

Oxford Children’s Corpus and BBC Radio 2 500 Words 2013

Oxford Children’s Corpus and BBC Radio 2 500 Words 2014

New words 2015

animatronics animatronic

hillfort

shopkins ebola

baymax

Oxford Children’s Corpus and BBC Radio 2 500 Words 2015

Cyclops

Poseidon

Heracles

Olympus

Helios

Medusa

demigod

Caspian

Narnia

Aslan

Naiad

Satyr

orc

Hobbit

Bilbo

Gandalf

Frodo

Middle Earth

Thorin

Literary references wand

phoenix

Luna

Hermione

Hogwarts

Dumbledore

Voldemort

Harry Potter

Narnia Tolkien

Percy Jackson

Oxford Children’s Corpus and BBC Radio 2 500 Words 2015

Influence of films wolf

Anna

troll

Elsa

Kai

Olaf

Marshmallow

Hans

Sven

Kristoff

Gerda

Arendelle

This is Lily Stewart reporting for Aldermaston School on the most important event of the year in Arendelle, yes Anna and Kristoff are finally getting married! and it is going to be a magical event. (Frozen 2, girl, 8)

Frozen

Oxford Children’s Corpus and BBC Radio 2 500 Words 2015

Maleficent

Tallulah had been captured and it was up to Tommy to save her from the evil Maleficent the great, as she called herself . As he arrived at the spooky stone castle George creped down the corridor to the dungeon to rescue Tallulah. (George and the magic carpet, girl, 10)

fairy

Fairy

Aurora

Leila

Maleficent

Stefan

Godmother

Moors

Oxford Children’s Corpus and BBC Radio 2 500 Words 2014

Influence of films

Oxford Children’s Corpus and BBC Radio 2 500 Words 2016

Oxford Children’s Corpus and BBC Radio 2 500 Words 2016

Highlights this year: • Duchess of Cornwall is one of the judges

• Malorie Blackman, Frank Cottrell Boyce, Charlie Higson, Francesca Simon are judges again

• All entrants get a certificate for entering the competition and are entered into a draw for tickets for the final

• Final will be at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death

Oxford Children’s Corpus and BBC Radio 2 500 Words 2016

What will the children’s word of the year for 2016 be?