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Part of
Nominal Compound Acquisition
Edited by Wolfgang U. Dressler, F. Nihan Ketrez and Marianne Kilani-Schoch
[Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 61] 2017
► pp. 251–274

Chapter 11
Compounding in early child speech: Hebrew peer talk 2–8

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| | Tel Aviv University

This chapter traces the emergence and consolidation of Hebrew compounds across the childhood years, treating compounds as constructions (Goldberg 2003). Hebrew compounds are strictly nominal, with three different structures, each relating lexicon, morphology, and syntax: The bound smixut, the free compound, and the double compound. The current study examines the distributions and functions of smixut and free compounds in the peer talk transcripts of Hebrew-speaking children aged 2–8. Findings indicate that smixut compounds increase in number with age, emerging as the major vehicle for expressing complex sub-categorization relations. Free compounds constitute the initial vehicle for the expression of nominal predication. The lexical, morpho-syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic facets of compound development in the childhood years are discussed in the chapter.

Keywords: Hebrew, smixut, morpho-syntax, free compounds, double compounds, development
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Hebrew compounds in child language development
      • 1.1.1Adjacency smixut compounds
      • 1.1.2Compounds based on shel ‘of’
    • 1.2Aims and theoretical frameworks of analysis
  • 2.Method
    • 2.1Analysis
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1General compounding measures
    • 3.2Grammatical compounds
    • 3.3Lexical compounding
  • 4.Discussion: From loose to specified relations across childhood
    • 4.12–2;6 year olds
    • 4.22;6–3 year olds
    • 4.33–4 year olds
    • 4.44–5 year olds
    • 4.55–6 year olds
    • 4.67–8 year olds
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 19 December 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lald.61.12rav
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Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Berman, Ruth A.
2020. Chapter 14. Genitive (smixut) constructions in Modern Hebrew. In Usage-Based Studies in Modern Hebrew [Studies in Language Companion Series, 210], ► pp. 507 ff. DOI logo
Ravid, Dorit
2020. Chapter 8. Derivation. In Usage-Based Studies in Modern Hebrew [Studies in Language Companion Series, 210], ► pp. 203 ff. DOI logo

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