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The Acquisition of Derivational Morphology: A cross-linguistic perspective
Edited by Veronika Mattes, Sabine Sommer-Lolei, Katharina Korecky-Kröll and Wolfgang U. Dressler
[Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 66] 2021
► pp. 141–168

Chapter 6
Derivational morphology in Croatian child language

| University of Zagreb
Few studies have analysed derivation in languages other than English, including Croatian. This study shows that by the age of three years, Croatian children already use a high number of derived words, especially prefixed verbs. Both the number of acquired affixes and proportion of derived words increase with age. Verbs are mainly prefixed and nouns suffixed. The most prevalent semantic categories in nouns are objects and instruments, and derivation in verbs marks differences in aspect and/or Aktionsart. Later child speech shows productive usage of derivation, including derivational pairs and mini-paradigms, neologisms and neosemantism. The frequency of derived words in child-directed speech influences their frequency in child language. Compared to children, adults employ a broader repertoire of derivational patterns.
Keywords: child language, derivation, Croatian
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Derivation in Croatian
      • 1.1.1Derivation of nouns
      • 1.1.2Derivation of verbs
    • 1.2Derivation in Croatian language acquisition
    • 1.3Aims of the study
  • 2.Methodology
  • 3.Derivational morphology in CS and CDS
    • 3.1Suffixation
      • 3.1.1Nouns
      • 3.1.2Verbs
    • 3.2Prefixation
      • 3.2.1Nouns
      • 3.2.2Verbs
  • 4.Frequency and acquisition of derived words in CS
    • 4.1Frequencies of derived nouns and verbs in CS and CDS
    • 4.2Frequencies of different derivational types in CS and CDS
    • 4.3Acquisition: Appearance and development of derived words
    • 4.4Acquisition: Derivational pairs and mini-paradigms
    • 4.5Acquisition: Neologisms and neosemantism
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1Derivational patterns in CS and CDS
      • 5.1.1Derivational types
      • 5.1.2Productivity
      • 5.1.3Frequency
      • 5.1.4Semantics
    • 5.2Derivation in development – evidence of productivity
      • 5.2.1Derived words in CS
      • 5.2.2Affixes and lemmas in CS
      • 5.2.3Spontaneous usage of derived forms
      • 5.2.4Neologisms
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 10 November 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lald.66.06hrz
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