Abstract
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 477-494 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| Journal | Journal of Child Language |
| Volume | 36 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jan 2009 |
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Acquisition of gender agreement in Lithuanian : exploring the effect of diminutive usage in an elicited production task. / Savickiene, Inets; Kempe, Vera; Brooks, Patricia J.
In: Journal of Child Language, Vol. 36, No. 3, 01.2009, p. 477-494.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
TY - JOUR
T1 - Acquisition of gender agreement in Lithuanian
T2 - exploring the effect of diminutive usage in an elicited production task
AU - Savickiene, Inets
AU - Kempe, Vera
AU - Brooks, Patricia J.
PY - 2009/1
Y1 - 2009/1
N2 - This study examines Lithuanian children's acquisition of gender agreement using an elicited production task. Lithuanian is a richly inflected Baltic language, with two genders and seven cases. Younger (N=24, mean 3;1, 2;5–3;8) and older (N=24, mean 6;3, 5;6–6;9) children were shown pictures of animals and asked to describe them after hearing the animal's name. Animal names differed with respect to familiarity (novel vs. familiar), derivational status (diminutive vs. simplex) and gender (masculine vs. feminine). Analyses of gender-agreement errors based on adjective and pronoun usage indicated that younger children made more errors than older children, with errors more prevalent for novel animal names. For novel animals, and for feminine nouns, children produced fewer errors with nouns introduced in diminutive form. These results complement findings from several Slavic languages (Russian, Serbian and Polish) that diminutives constitute a salient cluster of word forms that may provide an entry point for the child's acquisition of noun morphology.
AB - This study examines Lithuanian children's acquisition of gender agreement using an elicited production task. Lithuanian is a richly inflected Baltic language, with two genders and seven cases. Younger (N=24, mean 3;1, 2;5–3;8) and older (N=24, mean 6;3, 5;6–6;9) children were shown pictures of animals and asked to describe them after hearing the animal's name. Animal names differed with respect to familiarity (novel vs. familiar), derivational status (diminutive vs. simplex) and gender (masculine vs. feminine). Analyses of gender-agreement errors based on adjective and pronoun usage indicated that younger children made more errors than older children, with errors more prevalent for novel animal names. For novel animals, and for feminine nouns, children produced fewer errors with nouns introduced in diminutive form. These results complement findings from several Slavic languages (Russian, Serbian and Polish) that diminutives constitute a salient cluster of word forms that may provide an entry point for the child's acquisition of noun morphology.
U2 - 10.1017/S0305000908009100
DO - 10.1017/S0305000908009100
M3 - Article
VL - 36
SP - 477
EP - 494
JO - Journal of Child Language
JF - Journal of Child Language
SN - 0305-0009
IS - 3
ER -