The amount of words spoken in a sentence is linked to which of the following?

The correct answer highlights the concept of Mean Length of Utterance (MLU), which is a key measure in language development. MLU refers to the average number of morphemes (the smallest units of meaning) found in a set of utterances produced by a speaker, often used to assess the linguistic maturity of children.

As children develop their language skills, there is a natural increase in the MLU, indicating a greater complexity in their sentence structures. A longer average sentence length typically suggests that a child is not only using more words but is also combining them in increasingly sophisticated ways. This progression reflects cognitive and linguistic development, meaning that MLU serves as a useful indicator of a child's growth in language use and overall communication abilities.

In contrast, while vocabulary diversity pertains to the variety of words a speaker uses, sentence complexity refers to how those words are organized into more intricate structures. Spoken word recognition deals with how well individuals can identify words they have heard. Although these concepts are relevant to language development, they do not directly measure the specific relationship between the quantity of words in a sentence and the overall linguistic proficiency demonstrated by sentence length. Therefore, Mean Length of Utterance is the most pertinent measure when considering the amount of words spoken in a