Naslov
The Acquisition of Diminutives in Croatian

Autori
Palmović, Marijan

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Poglavlja u knjigama, znanstveni

Knjiga
The Acquisition of Diminutives: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective

Urednik/ci
Savickiene, Ineta, Dressler, Wolfgang

Izdavač
John Benjamins Publishing

Grad
Berlin

Godina
2007

Raspon stranica
73-88

ISBN
978-90-272-5303-3

Ključne riječi
diminutives, language acquisition

Sažetak
Diminutives are a prominent feature of child-directed speech in Croatian. According to the data based on the Croatian child language corpus, children acquire them early - before the age of 2. However, this is the first systematic study of the acquisition of diminutives in Croatian. In Croatian, nouns, verbs and adjectives can be diminutivized. For each of these word categories there are many affixes for diminutive derivation, but only a few are productive. In the recorded material of our child, the girl Antonija, only a few adjective and verb diminutives were recorded, thus the analysis will concentrate on noun diminutives. Also, only suffix types of noun diminutive derivation were found. Therefore, in the second part of the chapter only this type of diminutive derivation will be discussed. Diminutive formation in Croatian is a productive model of derivational morphology. The range of diminutive meanings is wide, from expressing smallness to pejorative meaning and irony, depending on the word that is diminutivized or on the context. Diminutives are frequent in child-directed speech. Parents use them mainly to create a child-centered atmosphere (Jurafsky 1996). With only a few examples of opposition between diminutives and simplex forms it is difficult to talk about the meaning of early child diminutives. It may be that they do not have any meaning other than the simplex form. Later on, as the number of oppositions between diminutives and simplex forms grows, the diminutives in Antonija's speech have a pragmatic value. Together with the appropriate intonation, whether used by Antonija or her parents, diminutives contribute to the child- oriented atmosphere, the feeling of closeness and endearment.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Filologija

Napomena
Poglavlje u knjizi, ur. Ineta Savickiene.

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