Abstract
Gender agreement elicitation was used with Russian children to examine how diminutives common in Russian child-directed speech affect gender learning. Forty-six children (2;9-4;8) were shown pictures of familiar and of novel animals and asked to describe them after hearing their names, which all contained regular morphophonological cues to masculine or feminine gender. Half were presented as simplex (e.g. jozh 'porcupine') and half as diminutive forms (e.g. jozhik 'porcupine-DIM'). Children produced fewer agreement errors for diminutive than for simplex nouns, indicating that the regularizing features of diminutives enhance gender categorization. The study demonstrates how features of child-directed speech can facilitate language learning.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 471-485 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | Journal of Child Language |
| Volume | 30 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - May 2003 |
Fingerprint
Cite this
}
Diminutivization supports gender acquisition in Russian children. / Kempe, Vera; Brooks, Patricia J.; Mironova, Natalija; Fedorova, Olga.
In: Journal of Child Language, Vol. 30, No. 2, 05.2003, p. 471-485.Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article
TY - JOUR
T1 - Diminutivization supports gender acquisition in Russian children
AU - Kempe, Vera
AU - Brooks, Patricia J.
AU - Mironova, Natalija
AU - Fedorova, Olga
PY - 2003/5
Y1 - 2003/5
N2 - Gender agreement elicitation was used with Russian children to examine how diminutives common in Russian child-directed speech affect gender learning. Forty-six children (2;9-4;8) were shown pictures of familiar and of novel animals and asked to describe them after hearing their names, which all contained regular morphophonological cues to masculine or feminine gender. Half were presented as simplex (e.g. jozh 'porcupine') and half as diminutive forms (e.g. jozhik 'porcupine-DIM'). Children produced fewer agreement errors for diminutive than for simplex nouns, indicating that the regularizing features of diminutives enhance gender categorization. The study demonstrates how features of child-directed speech can facilitate language learning.
AB - Gender agreement elicitation was used with Russian children to examine how diminutives common in Russian child-directed speech affect gender learning. Forty-six children (2;9-4;8) were shown pictures of familiar and of novel animals and asked to describe them after hearing their names, which all contained regular morphophonological cues to masculine or feminine gender. Half were presented as simplex (e.g. jozh 'porcupine') and half as diminutive forms (e.g. jozhik 'porcupine-DIM'). Children produced fewer agreement errors for diminutive than for simplex nouns, indicating that the regularizing features of diminutives enhance gender categorization. The study demonstrates how features of child-directed speech can facilitate language learning.
U2 - 10.1017/S0305000903005580
DO - 10.1017/S0305000903005580
M3 - Review article
C2 - 12846306
AN - SCOPUS:0037527965
VL - 30
SP - 471
EP - 485
JO - Journal of Child Language
JF - Journal of Child Language
SN - 0305-0009
IS - 2
ER -