The Acquisition of Diminutives
A cross-linguistic perspective
Editors
This cross-linguistic volume innovates research of the acquisition of diminutives in the inflecting-fusional languages Lithuanian, Russian, Croatian, Greek, Italian, Spanish, German and Dutch, the agglutinating languages Turkish, Hungarian and Finnish and in the introflecting Hebrew. These languages differ in various aspects relevant for the acquisition of diminutives and the development of pragmatics in early child language. Diminutive formation often tends to be the first pattern of word formation to emerge. The main reason for this seems to lie in the pragmatic functions of endearment, empathy, and sympathy, which make diminutives particularly appropriate for child-centred communication. A main topic of this book is the relation of emergence and early development between diminutives and other categories of word formation and inflection. The greater degree of morphological productivity and transparency, as well as phonological saliency, favors the use of diminutives. In this case diminutives may facilitate the acquisition of inflection.
[Language Acquisition and Language Disorders, 43] 2007. vi, 352 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Published online on 1 July 2008
Published online on 1 July 2008
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
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IntroductionIneta Savickienė and Wolfgang U. Dressler | pp. 1–12
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1. Form and meaning of diminutives in Lithuanian child languageIneta Savickienė | pp. 13–41
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2. Diminutives in Russian at the early stages of acquisitionEkaterina Protassova and Maria D. Voeikova | pp. 43–72
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3. The acquisition of diminutives in CroatianMarijan Palmovic | pp. 73–88
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4. Diminutives in Greek child languageEvangelia Thomadaki and Ursula Stephany | pp. 89–123
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5. The role of diminutives in the acquisition of Italian morphologySabrina Noccetti, Anna De Marco, Livia Tonelli and Wolfgang U. Dressler | pp. 125–153
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6. The acquisition of diminutives in Spanish: a useful deviceVictoria Marrero, Carmen Aguirre and María José Albalá | pp. 155–181
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7. A longitudinal study of the acquisition of diminutives in DutchAgnita Souman and Steven Gillis | pp. 183–206
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8. Diminutives and hypocoristics in Austrian German (AG)Katharina Korecky-Kröll and Wolfgang U. Dressler | pp. 207–230
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9. Acquisition of diminutives in HungarianPéter Bodor and Virág Barcza | pp. 231–262
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10. Diminutives in Finnish child-directed and child speechKlaus Laalo | pp. 263–278
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11. The (scarcity of) diminutives in Turkish child languageF. Nihan Ketrez and Ayhan Aksu-Koç | pp. 279–293
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12. Acquiring diminutive structures and meanings in Hebrew: An experimental studyAnat Hora, Galit Ben-Zvi, Ronit Levie and Dorit Ravid | pp. 295–317
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13. Diminutives provide multiple benefits for language acquisitionVera Kempe, Patricia J. Brooks and Steven Gillis | pp. 319–342
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ConclusionsIneta Savickienė and Wolfgang U. Dressler | pp. 343–349
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Subject index | pp. 351–352
Cited by (33)
Cited by 33 other publications
Fuchs, Zuzanna, Maria Polinsky & Gregory Scontras
2024. Chapter 12. Explaining gender. In Multifaceted Multilingualism [Studies in Bilingualism, 66], ► pp. 292 ff. 
Kazakovskaya, V. V.
2023. Diminutives and hypocoristics in adolescents’ pet-directed speech. Russian language at school 84:4 ► pp. 27 ff.
Odijk, Lotte & Steven Gillis
2023. Children steer the inflectional diversity of their parents: The role of word births and growing vocabulary. First Language 43:5 ► pp. 539 ff.
Ососкова, А.С.
2023. Structural, Semantic, and Linguocultural Peculiarities of Ethno-Marked Diminutive Designations of a Person in English. Иностранные языки в высшей школе :3(62) ► pp. 87 ff.
Forshaw, William
2022. Book Review: Veronica Mattes, Sabine Sommer-Lolei, Katharina Korecky-Kröll and Wolfgang U. Dressler (Eds.), The acquisition of derivational morphology: A cross-linguistic perspective. First Language 42:5 ► pp. 696 ff.
Montrul, Silvina
2022. Heritage language speakers inform the critical period hypothesis for first and second language acquisition. In Generative SLA in the Age of Minimalism [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders, 67], ► pp. 265 ff.
Argus, Reili
2021. Chapter 9. Acquisition of noun and verb derivation in Estonian. In The Acquisition of Derivational Morphology [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders, 66], ► pp. 218 ff.
Dressler, Wolfgang U., Veronika Mattes & Laila Kjærbæk
2021. Chapter 1. Introduction. In The Acquisition of Derivational Morphology [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders, 66], ► pp. 2 ff.
Kazakovskaya, Victoria & Maria D. Voeikova
2021. Chapter 7. Acquisition of derivational morphology in Russian. In The Acquisition of Derivational Morphology [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders, 66], ► pp. 170 ff.
Kilani-Schoch, Marianne & Aris Xanthos
2021. Chapter 3. Derivational patterns in spontaneous data of French-speaking parent-child interactions before age three. In The Acquisition of Derivational Morphology [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders, 66], ► pp. 54 ff.
Mattes, Veronika & Wolfgang U. Dressler
2021. Chapter 12. Conclusions. In The Acquisition of Derivational Morphology [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders, 66], ► pp. 290 ff.
Sommer-Lolei, Sabine, Veronika Mattes, Katharina Korecky-Kröll & Wolfgang U. Dressler
2021. Chapter 5. Early phases of development of German derivational morphology. In The Acquisition of Derivational Morphology [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders, 66], ► pp. 110 ff.
Ketrez, F. Nihan
2020. Word formation through derivation vs. compounding. In Morphological Complexity within and across Boundaries [Studies in Language Companion Series, 215], ► pp. 40 ff.
Ketrez, F. Nihan
2023. Asymmetry, but where? Terms of address in pet-, infant-, and child-directed speech in Turkish. Taikomoji kalbotyra :20 ► pp. 149 ff.
Laalo, Klaus & Reili Argus
Saturno, Jacopo
2020. Word formation in the earliest stages of L2 Polish. Language, Interaction and Acquisition 11:2 ► pp. 232 ff.
Colston, Herbert L.
2019. How Language Makes Meaning,
Ponsonnet, Maïa
2018. A preliminary typology of emotional connotations in morphological diminutives and augmentatives. Studies in Language 42:1 ► pp. 17 ff.
Dabašinskienė, Ineta & Laura Kamandulytė-Merfeldienė
2017. Chapter 6. The early production of compounds in Lithuanian. In Nominal Compound Acquisition [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders, 61], ► pp. 145 ff.
Dressler, Wolfgang U., F. Nihan Ketrez & Marianne Kilani-Schoch
2017. Chapter 13. Discussion and outlook. In Nominal Compound Acquisition [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders, 61], ► pp. 287 ff.
Dressler, Wolfgang U., F. Nihan Ketrez, Marianne Kilani-Schoch & Ursula Stephany
2017. Introduction. In Nominal Compound Acquisition [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders, 61], ► pp. 1 ff.
Schwaiger, Sonja, Jutta Ransmayr, Katharina Korecky-Kröll, Sabine Sommer-Lolei & Wolfgang U. Dressler
2017. Scaling morphosemantic transparency/opacity: A corpus-linguistic and acquisitionist study of German diminutives. Yearbook of the Poznan Linguistic Meeting 3:1 ► pp. 141 ff.
Kempe, Vera & Patricia J. Brooks
2016. Miniature natural language learning in L2 acquisition research. In Cognitive Individual Differences in Second Language Processing and Acquisition [Bilingual Processing and Acquisition, 3], ► pp. 41 ff.
Bassano, Dominique
2015. The acquisition of nominal determiners. In The Acquisition of Reference [Trends in Language Acquisition Research, 15], ► pp. 25 ff.
Tribushinina, Elena, Huub van den Bergh, Dorit Ravid, Ayhan Aksu-Koç, Marianne Kilani-Schoch, Katharina Korecky-Kröll, Iris Leibovitch-Cohen, Sabine Laaha, Bracha Nir, Wolfgang U. Dressler & Steven Gillis
2014. Development of adjective frequencies across semantic classes. Language, Interaction and Acquisition 5:2 ► pp. 185 ff.
Montrul, Silvina, Israel de la Fuente, Justin Davidson & Rebecca Foote
2013. The role of experience in the acquisition and production of diminutives and gender in Spanish: Evidence from L2 learners and heritage speakers. Second Language Research 29:1 ► pp. 87 ff.
van Dijk, Marijn, Paul van Geert, Katharina Korecky‐Kröll, Isabelle Maillochon, Sabine Laaha, Wolfgang U. Dressler & Dominique Bassano
2013. Dynamic Adaptation in Child–Adult Language Interaction. Language Learning 63:2 ► pp. 243 ff.
Dressler, Wolfgang U.
2012. On the acquisition of inflectional morphology: introduction. Morphology 22:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Tribushinina, Elena & Elena Dubinkina
2012. Adjective production by Russian-speaking children with specific language impairment. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics 26:6 ► pp. 554 ff.
Brooks, Patricia J., Vera Kempe & Annemarie Donachie
2011. Second Language Learning Benefits from Similarity in Word Endings: Evidence from Russian. Language Learning 61:4 ► pp. 1142 ff.
Kempe, Vera, Patricia J. Brooks & Anatoliy Kharkhurin
2010. Cognitive Predictors of Generalization of Russian Grammatical Gender Categories. Language Learning 60:1 ► pp. 127 ff.
SAVICKIENĖ, INETA, VERA KEMPE & PATRICIA J. BROOKS
2009. Acquisition of gender agreement in Lithuanian: Exploring the effect of diminutive usage in an elicited production task. Journal of Child Language 36:3 ► pp. 477 ff.
[no author supplied]
2009. INDEX OF BOOKS RECEIVED 2009. Journal of Child Language 36:5 ► pp. 1173 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 22 october 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
Subjects
Main BIC Subject
CF: Linguistics
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General