Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T17:31:23.119Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Acquisition of Inflectional Marking: A Case Study of Finnish

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2008

Jussi Niemi
Affiliation:
Department of Phonetics and General Linguistics, University of Joensuu, P.O. Box 111, 80101 Joensuu, Finland
Sinikka Niemi
Affiliation:
Department of Swedish, University of Joensuu, P.O. Box 111, 80101, Joensuu, Finland.
Get access

Abstract

Longitudinal acquisition studies of inflectional paradigms of Finish have shown, for example, that certain type of stem confusions predominate in the errors during the first few years of language acquisition. The present study focused upon the development of the (possible) base forms in verbs and nominals (i.e. nouns, adjectives, numerals and pronouns) of Finnish in the speech of the authors' son between ages 1.5 and 5.6. Various factors are discussed that appear to account for most of the errors in a satisfactory manner, e.g., frequency of a related form in caretaker speech, the degree of isomorphy (or transparency) found in the inflection as well as the role of the self-directed speech of the child.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aitchison, J. 1983. The Articulate Mammal. London: Hutchinson.Google Scholar
Antinucci, F. & Miller, R. 1976. How Children Talk About What Happened. Journal of Child Language 3, 167189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atkinson, M. 1982. Explanations in the Study of Child Language Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Atkinson-King, K. 1973. Children's Acquisition of Phonological Stress Contrasts. Working Papers in Phonetics, 25. UCLA.Google Scholar
Bowerman, M. 1973. Early Syntactic Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Brown, R. 1973. A First Language. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, L. 1967. Suomen e-vartalot: lisays vai poisto? Virittäjä 79, 1030.Google Scholar
Clark, E. & Berman, R. 1984. Structure and Use in the Acquisition of Word Formation. Language 60, 542590.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cutler, A. 1982. The Reliability of Speech Error Data. In Cutler, A. (ed.), Slips of the Tongue and Language Production. Berlin: Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elliott, A. 1981. Child Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Itkonen, T. 1977a. Huomioita lapsen äänteistön kehityksestä. Virittäjä 81, 279308.Google Scholar
Itkonen, T. 1977b. Lapsen kielenoppiminen. In Korhonen, R., Mäkinen, K. and Rikama, J. (eds.), Lukion äidinkieli. Porvoo: Söderström.Google Scholar
Karisson, F. 1982. Suomen kielen äänne- ja muotorakenne. Porvoo: Söderström.Google Scholar
Karisson, F. 1983. Finnish Grammar. Porvoo: Södersträm.Google Scholar
Leiwo, M. 1977. Kielitieteellisiä näkökohtia vüivöstyneestä kielenkehityksestä. Studia Philologica Jyväskylensia, 10. Jyväskylä.Google Scholar
McNeill, D. 1966. Developmental Psycholinguistics. In Smith, F. and Mille, G. (eds.), The Genesis of Language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
MacWhinney, B. 1975. Rules, Rote, and Analogy in Morphological Formations by Hungarian Children. Journal of Child Language 2, 6577.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Menn, L. & MacWhinney, B. 1984. The Repeated Morph Constraint: Toward an Explanation. Language 60, 519541.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nesser, A. 1981. Finska barns spr˚ kutveckling: fonologi och morfologi. FUSKIS/ FIDUS, 2. Finsk-ugriska institutionen, University of Uppsala.Google Scholar
Niemi, J. & Niemi, S. 1985. Suomenkielisen lapsen morfosyntaksin ja sanaston kehityksestä: tapaustutkimus. Virittäjä 89, 152171.Google Scholar
Nykysuomen sanakirja 1951–1961. Sadeniemi, M. et al. (eds.). Porvoo: Söderström.Google Scholar
Pajunen, A. & Palomäki, U. 1984. Frequency Analysis of Spoken and Written Discourse in Finnish 1. Finnish Research Center for Domestic Languages, Report 30. Helsinki: Valtion Painatuskeskus.Google Scholar
Pennanen, E. 1966. Contributions to the Study of Backformation in English. Acta Academiae Socialis, Ser. A. Vol. 4. Tampere.Google Scholar
Penttilä, A. 1963. Suomen kielioppi. Porvoo: Söderström (2nd ed.).Google Scholar
Räisänen, A. 1975. Havaintoja lastenkielestä. Virittäjä 79, 251266.Google Scholar
SimŌes, M. & Stoel-Gammon, C. 1979. The Acquisition of Inflections in Portuguese. Journal of Child Language 6, 5367.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slobin, D. 1979. Psycholinguistics. Glenview, Ill.: Scott and Freeman.Google Scholar
Toivainen, J. 1980. Inflectional Affixes Used by Finnish-speaking Children Aged 1-3 Years. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura.Google Scholar
Tuomi, T. 1972 (ed.), Reverse Dictionary of Modern Standard Finnish. Hämeenlinna: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura.Google Scholar