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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. 217–236

Chapter 9
Acquisition of noun and verb derivation in Estonian

| Tallinn University

The aim of the study is to describe the acquisition of derivation in Estonian. The analysis is based on recorded spontaneous speech of three Estonian children between the ages of 1;3 and 3;1. The role of productivity, transparency, semantics and frequency of suffixes and patterns, as well as the learning strategy (from simplex to complex), have been analysed. The Estonian children started to use the first derivatives at the same time as the first compounds emerged and noun inflection started to develop. The number of different suffixes used by the children was quite large, but not all suffixes were used productively. The role of productivity and frequency can be observed in the order of the acquisition of the suffixes.

Keywords: first language, acquisition of derivation, noun derivation, verb derivation, Estonian
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The system of derivation in the Estonian language
  • 3.Data and method
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1General overview of data
    • 4.2Emergence of the first suffixes
    • 4.3Further development of derivation: The productive use of first suffixes and the emergence of different formation patterns and suffixes
    • 4.4The general characteristics of the process of the acquisition of derivation: Rising complexity and word families
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 10 November 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lald.66.09arg
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