From Word-Formation Rules to Creating Paradigms

Why Errors Occur in Children’s Production of Complex Words

Term Paper (Advanced seminar) , 2007 , 21 Pages

English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics

In the language acquisition process, children acquire words by simultaneously trying to comprehend how language functions and expressing forms which they have learned for meanings they wish to convey.
Children are very skillful at identifying words in the stream of sounds, attributing meaning to them, segmenting them into smaller parts, and detecting rules of word structure. When they create words themselves, they use everything they have learned at different stages of acquisition, by following the rules they have discovered in language.
As children learn more words, they are able to identify patterns and certain regularities in the lexicon. They make use of these patterns and build paradigms, i.e. they use the same templates to connect words which are related in form and meaning. By creating forms for specific meanings, they coin words which fit into an already existing paradigm. Paradigms reflect a certain regularity within language, and at the same time, reveal children’s need to organize and compress the huge amount of words that they encounter.
Despite children’s skillfulness in learning language and their ability to analyze the structure of language and its regularities, despite their mastery in creating innovative complex words that follow principles of word-formation, not all the words children produce are legitimate forms. The purpose of this paper is to identify the reasons why errors occur in children’s production of complex words.
The second part of the paper will deal with a theoretical analysis of complex words, from the internal structure of words to main types of word-formation like derivation and compounding, and finally, will focus on establishing rules of word-building that children identify in language and also use in their word production.
The following section will treat children’s use of complex words, the word-formation processes they favor, the types of words they find easier to create, as well as the principles that they follow in their word creation. This part will close with a thematization of paradigms.
The fourth part will analyze errors, and will concentrate on elucidating the purpose of this paper, namely, the question referring to the source of error production in children’s creation of complex words. As will be revealed later in the paper, many of the illegitimate forms that children create are a result of non-permissible generalizations which reflect the regulating role of paradigms.

Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)

• I. Introduction
• II. Analyzing complex words
  • A. The internal structure of words
  • B. Main types of word-formation
  • C. Establishing word-formation rules
• III. Children's creation of complex words
  • A. Comprehension vs. production
  • B. Word-learning strategies
  • C. Children's use of word-formation processes
    • 1. Acquiring structure principles and compositionality
    • 2. Using derivation and compounding
  • D. Setting up paradigms
    • 1. Factors in construction of paradigms: transparency of meaning, simplicity of form, productivity
• IV. Analysis of errors
  • A. Conventionality and contrast
  • B. Generating errors: why children create illegitimate forms
• V. Conclusions

Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)

This paper aims to investigate the reasons behind errors in children's production of complex words. It explores the process of language acquisition, focusing on how children learn and apply word-formation rules. The paper delves into the internal structure of words, different types of word-formation, and the role of paradigms in children's language development.

• The internal structure of words and the role of morphemes
• Word-formation processes, including derivation and compounding
• Children's strategies for learning and using complex words
• The development and use of paradigms in language acquisition
• The analysis of errors in children's production of complex words and the reasons behind them

Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)

The introduction provides an overview of the paper's purpose, focusing on the phenomenon of errors in children's production of complex words. It highlights children's ability to learn and apply word-formation rules, while acknowledging the occurrence of errors in their language development.

Chapter II delves into the theoretical analysis of complex words, examining their internal structure, main types of word-formation, and the establishment of word-building rules. It explores the concepts of morphemes, roots, affixes, and the relationship between form and meaning in word creation.

Chapter III focuses on children's use of complex words, exploring their word-formation processes, strategies for learning words, and the development of paradigms. It examines how children acquire structure principles, utilize derivation and compounding, and create their own paradigms based on patterns and regularities in the lexicon.

Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)

The paper explores the key concepts of language acquisition, complex words, word-formation, morphemes, derivation, compounding, paradigms, errors, children's language development, and the relationship between form and meaning in language.

• College: Technical University of Braunschweig (Englisches Seminar)
• Course: Language Acquisition: Vocabulary and Modality
• Author: Gabriela Bara (Author)
• Publication Year: 2007
• Pages: 21
• Catalog Number: V144322
• ISBN (eBook): 9783640554362
• ISBN (Book): 9783640554805
• Language: English
• Tags: word structure, word-formation, structure principles, compositionality, derivation, compounding, productivity, conventionality, contrast, errors