These page includes some links and notes relating to the CHILDES demo.

Snapshots of data sets used in William Snyder’s textbook (Child language: The parametric approach). If you want to follow along with his discussion in the book. At least one intermediate file created in the process is here in addition to the CHILDES data sets. Also note that in the data for Sarah, the child utterances are in the SAR tier in this version, although in the current version of the dataset within CHILDES, the tier has been named CHI instead (more conventional).

CLAN download page. On Mac OS X, download dmg, open, double-click install package. Will also install CAfont by default. Windows and *nix versions can also be retrieved here.

There was for a time a version of the programs online called WebCLAN. This is no longer available under this name, but the functions are there within the “Browsable database“.

For complete information on the format and searching utilities, look at the CHAT manual and the CLAN manual.

Using the CHILDES transcript browser will suffice for simple projects. One limitation is that you cannot use input files or save to output files (although for output you can use copy and paste).

Some things to try in the browser.

• Eng-USA > Bloom70 > Peter > peter07.cha.
• Eng-USA > Brown > Adam > adam32.
• Run MLU on adam32. Limit to CHI with +t*CHI. Results by copy and paste.
• combo on adam32: +t*CHI +s”*^?”
• Get rid of %xgra. Look at morpheme tier on these questions.
• For example at and after line 55 of adam32.
• Look in child and morpheme tiers: +t*CHI +t%mor
• Search the morpheme tier now exclusively for aux or be ending with ?
• Almost +s”%mor:^*^(aux+be)^*^?”
• Roast beef and chicken flowers?
• Passing the time away, expanding the window. Trying this from Eve’s directory. +t*CHI +w2 -w2 +s”pass^the^time” eve19.cha