ERIC Number: EJ777538
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2006-Aug
Pages: 39
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0305-0009
EISSN: N/A
Polish Children's Productivity with Case Marking: The Role of Regularity, Type Frequency, and Phonological Diversity
Dabrowska, Ewa; Szczerbinski, Marcin
Journal of Child Language, v33 n3 p559-597 Aug 2006
57 Polish-speaking children aged from 2;4, to 4;8 and 16 adult controls participated in a nonce-word inflection experiment testing their ability to use the genitive, dative and accusative inflections productively. Results show that this ability develops early: the majority of two-year-olds were already productive with all inflections apart from dative neuter; and the overall performance of the four-year-olds was very similar to that of adults. All age groups were more productive with inflections that apply to large and/or phonologically diverse classes, although class size and token frequency appeared to be more important for younger children (two- and three-year-olds) and phonological diversity for older children and adults. Regularity, on the other hand, was a very poor predictor of productivity. The results support usage-based models of language acquisition and are problematic for the dual mechanism model. [This study was supported by British Academy.]
Descriptors: Polish, Child Language, Language Acquisition, Adults, Phonology, Form Classes (Languages), Predictor Variables, Models, Foreign Countries, Language Research, Age Differences, Young Children
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Early Childhood Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Poland
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A