childLex - A Lexical Database for Print Language for Children in German

In this article we introduce childLex, an online database for children's print language in German. childLex is based on a large corpus of children's books and textbooks used in school that comprises ca. 8 million words. It includes linguistic norms on the lexical, super-lexical, and sub-lexical level. Such norms are urgently needed in psychological research for the design of age-adequate stimulus and training materials. Separate norms are available for three age groups: 6-8 years (1st and 2nd grade), 9-10 years (3rd and 4th grade), and 11-12 years (5th and 6th grade). Moreover, childLex is directly comparable to the DWDS corpus, a large corpus for adults' print language. Here, we describe how childLex was collected and analyzed and compare frequency norms on the lexical, super-lexical, and sub-lexical level with frequency norms obtained from the DWDS corpus. Results show moderate levels of correspondence in the high-frequency range and on the sub-lexical level, but strong discrepancies for medium-and low-frequency elements on the lexical and super-lexical level. Finally, we illustrate which variables are available in childLex and how they can be retrieved using a web interface.