First language acquisition of compounds

Wolfgang U. Dressler | Department of Linguistics and Communication Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences

Laura E. Lettner | Department of Linguistics and Communication Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences

Katharina Korecky-Kröll | Department of Linguistics and Communication Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences

This chapter discusses early phases of first language acquisition of compounds in German based on longitudinal data of two Austrian children and compares these data to results on compound acquisition in other languages. The first compounds to emerge in German (simultaneously with the emergence of noun and verb inflection and of diminutives) were subordinate and endocentric two-member noun-noun compounds without linking elements. The first correct linking element which emerged later on is -n after word-final schwa of the first member. Order of emergence of compound patterns can be related to factors such as frequency, productivity, morphotactic and morphosemantic transparency. Left-headed and exocentric compounds had not yet emerged in our child speech corpora, and only one coordinate compound appeared.

Published online: 28 April 2010
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.311.24dre

Cited by

Cited by 14 other publications

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2017. In Nominal Compound Acquisition [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders, 61], ► pp. 165 ff.

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2017. In Nominal Compound Acquisition [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders, 61], ► pp. 145 ff.

Dressler, Wolfgang U.

2012. On the acquisition of inflectional morphology: introduction. Morphology 22:1 ► pp. 1 ff.

Dressler, Wolfgang U.

2013. James P. Blevins & Juliette Blevins (eds.), Analogy in grammar. Form and acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. xiv + 278pp. ISBN 978–0–19–954754–8 (hardback).. Word Structure 6:2 ► pp. 240 ff.

Dressler, Wolfgang U.

2013. Ray Jackendoff, Meaning and the lexicon: The Parallel Architecture 1975–2010. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. xvi + 485pp. ISBN 978–0-19-956888–8 (paperback).. Word Structure 6:2 ► pp. 244 ff.

Dressler, Wolfgang U., F. Nihan Ketrez, Marianne Kilani-Schoch & Ursula Stephany

2017. In Nominal Compound Acquisition [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders, 61], ► pp. 1 ff.

Fuhrhop, Nanna & Sarah Olthoff

2019. In Sprachsensibler Fachunterricht [Sprachsensibilität in Bildungsprozessen, ], ► pp. 35 ff.

Kazakovskaya, Victoria

2017. In Nominal Compound Acquisition [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders, 61], ► pp. 63 ff.

Ketrez, F. Nihan

2017. In Nominal Compound Acquisition [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders, 61], ► pp. 231 ff.

Korecky-Kröll, Katharina, Sabine Sommer-Lolei & Wolfgang U. Dressler

2017. In Nominal Compound Acquisition [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders, 61], ► pp. 19 ff.

Laalo, Klaus

2017. In Nominal Compound Acquisition [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders, 61], ► pp. 191 ff.

Rainer, Franz, Wolfgang U. Dressler, Francesco Gardani & Hans Christian Luschützky

2014. In Morphology and Meaning [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 327], ► pp. 3 ff.

Rosenberg, Maria

2019. In Perspectives on Abstract Concepts [Human Cognitive Processing, 65], ► pp. 241 ff.

Rosenberg, Maria & Ingmarie Mellenius

2018. Children’s novel NN compounding in Swedish diary data: function and form. Morphology 28:3 ► pp. 229 ff.

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