The Acquisition of Diminutives: A cross-linguistic perspective (Language Acquisition and Language Disorders)

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. The Acquisition of Diminutives......Page 2 Editorial page......Page 3 Title page......Page 4 LCC data......Page 5 Table of contents......Page 6 Introduction......Page 8 Form and meaning of diminutives in Lithuanian child language......Page 20 1. Diminutives in Lithuanian......Page 21 4. The Development of diminutives in child language......Page 25 5. Formal aspects of diminutives......Page 28 6. Productivity and transparency of diminutives......Page 32 7. Semantics of diminutives......Page 33 8. Pragmatics of diminutives......Page 39 9. Concluding remarks......Page 43 Diminutives in Russian at the early stagesof acquisition......Page 50 1. Description of the adult target system......Page 51 1.1 Diminutives from different parts of speech......Page 52 1.2 Diminutives and hypocoristics......Page 53 1.3 Diminutive grammar......Page 54 1.4 Augmentatives and other related affixes......Page 55 1.5 Diminutive use......Page 56 2.1 Previous studies on Russian child diminutives and augmentatives......Page 57 2.2 The present study......Page 58 2.3.1 Quantitative characteristics of diminutives: the case of Varja......Page 59 2.3.2 Quantitative characteristics of diminutives: the case of Filipp......Page 61 2.3.3 Comparison of the two children......Page 63 2.4.1 Semantic and pragmatic role of diminutives (Varja)......Page 66 2.4.2 The structural role of diminutives (Filipp)......Page 70 2.4.3 Comparison of the two children......Page 72 3. Discussion and conclusions......Page 75 The acquisition of diminutives in Croatian......Page 80 1. A short description of the adult target system......Page 81 1.3 Palatalized and nonpalatalized forms......Page 82 1.5 Homophonous suffixes......Page 83 1.8 Hypocoristics......Page 84 3. Antonija’s acquisition of diminutives......Page 85 3.1 The quantitative analysis......Page 86 3.2 Diminutives – simplex contrasts......Page 87 3.4 Errors......Page 91 3.5 The meaning of Antonija’s diminutives......Page 92 4. Conclusion......Page 94 1. Introduction*......Page 96 2.1.1 Derivational aspects of diminutives......Page 97 2.1.2 Hypocoristics and augmentatives......Page 98 2.1.3 The inflection of diminutives......Page 99 2.2 Semantic and pragmatic aspects of MG diminutives and hypocoristics......Page 102 3. The data......Page 104 4.1 Quantitative aspects......Page 105 4.2 Derivational development of diminutives......Page 111 4.3 Inflectional development of diminutives......Page 117 5.1 Hypocoristics vs. diminutives in child speech and child-directed speech......Page 120 5.2 Α suffix for creating one’s personal affectionate world: the case of -ina......Page 122 6. Conclusions: Form and function of diminutives in Greek as compared to other languages......Page 124 1. Introduction......Page 132 2. Description of Italian diminutives......Page 134 3. Methodology......Page 136 4. Emergence and evolution of diminutives......Page 137 5. Suffix allomorphy......Page 144 6. Semantic and pragmatic aspects......Page 148 7. Do diminutives facilitate the acquisition of inflection?......Page 153 8. Concluding Remarks......Page 155 A useful device......Page 162 1. The diminutives in Spanish......Page 163 2. Objectives......Page 164 4. Quantitative Descriptive Overview......Page 165 4.1 Child-directed speech......Page 167 4.2 Distribution across Word classes......Page 168 4.3 Summary......Page 169 5.1 The first contrasts......Page 170 5.3 Spontaneity and imitation in use of diminutives......Page 174 5.4 Constructing a morphological system......Page 176 6.1 The hipocoristics and diminutives: semantics and pragmatics......Page 178 6.2 Nouns’ semantic groups and diminutive......Page 182 7. Conclusions......Page 184 A longitudinal study of the acquisition of diminutives in Dutch1......Page 190 1. Adult diminutive system......Page 191 2. Data......Page 195 3.1 Early emergence......Page 196 3.2 Frequencies in child speech......Page 197 3.3 Frequencies in cds......Page 198 4. Form oppositions......Page 200 5.1 First emergence......Page 202 5.2 The frequency of allomorphs......Page 204 6. Comparing cds with ads......Page 209 7. Conclusion......Page 211 1. German adult language......Page 214 2. The acquisition data......Page 216 3. Distribution of the different diminutive classes......Page 219 4. Frequency ranking of diminutives......Page 221 6.1 Jan’s form oppositions......Page 224 6.3 Form oppositions in the input......Page 226 7. Semantic groups of diminutives......Page 227 8.1 Semantic and pragmatic evidence for diminutive acquisition in Jan’s data......Page 229 8.2 Semantic and pragmatic evidence for diminutive acquisition in Katharina’s data......Page 232 9. Comparison of Jan’s and Katharina’s diminutives......Page 233 10. Conclusion......Page 235 Acquisition of diminutives in Hungarian1......Page 238 1.1 Diminutive formation in Hungarian......Page 240 1.2 Declension of diminutives......Page 242 1.3 Functional aspects of diminutives......Page 244 2. Description of the databases......Page 245 2.1 Panna’s database......Page 246 2.2 Miki’s database......Page 247 2.3 The applied “data purification”......Page 248 3.1.1 Panna......Page 249 3.1.2 Miki......Page 250 3.1.3 Comparing Panna’s and Miki’s use of diminutives......Page 251 3.2 Distribution of different diminutive classes......Page 252 3.3 Evolution of the children’s diminutive use in time......Page 254 3.4 Emergence of diminutives and their simplex counterparts......Page 255 3.5. Formal productivity......Page 259 3.6. Semantic and pragmatic aspects of diminutive acquisition......Page 261 4. Summary and conclusions......Page 263 Appendix......Page 265 Notes......Page 267 1.1 Types of diminutives in Finnish......Page 270 1.3 Hypocoristics......Page 271 2.2 Formation by regular affixation......Page 272 2.3 Formation of diminutives by stem modification......Page 273 4. Morphophonological aspects of Finnish diminutives......Page 274 5.1 The material: classes of diminutives and the frequency of diminutives......Page 276 5.2.1 The first diminutives and the trochaic bias......Page 278 5.2.2 Tuulikki’s own diminutive types in the diary material......Page 280 5.2.3 Tuulikki’s diminutives in the recordings......Page 281 5.3 Tuomas: diminutives in diary material and recordings......Page 282 6. Conclusion......Page 283 1. Introduction......Page 286 2.1 -cik......Page 287 2.2 Other diminutives (or other forms of -cik)......Page 289 2.3 -Iş/-Oş and other hypocoristics......Page 290 4. Diminutives are rare in child speech......Page 291 5. An error......Page 293 6. Scarcity of diminutives in cds......Page 294 7. Conclusion......Page 297 1. Introduction......Page 302 1.2 Native Hebrew diminutives......Page 303 1.2.1 Juvenile diminutives......Page 304 Linear formation......Page 306 Reduplication......Page 308 2.2 Research tasks and procedure......Page 309 2.3 Analysis......Page 311 3.1 Study tasks......Page 312 3.2.1 Explanation: animacy......Page 313 3.2.2 Explanation: dimensions......Page 314 4. Discussion......Page 316 4.1 The explanation task......Page 317 4.2 The production task......Page 319 Diminutives provide multiple benefits for language acquisition......Page 326 1. The pervasiveness of diminutives in cds......Page 327 2. Diminutives aid word segmentation......Page 329 3. Diminutives aid morphology acquisition......Page 334 4. Why so many diminutives? Towards an explanation of the nature of cds......Page 341 Conclusions......Page 350 Subject Index......Page 358 The series Language Acquisition and Language Disorders......Page 360