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Productivity and beyond: mastering the Polish genitive inflection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 February 2005

EWA DĄBROWSKA
EWA DĄBROWSKA
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield
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Abstract

This study charts the development of the genitive masculine inflection, one of the most irregular parts of the Polish case-marking system. 72 Polish children aged from 2;3 to 10;8 participated in a nonce word production experiment testing their ability to supply the genitive form and their sensitivity to the semantic factors determining the choice of ending. Results indicate that productivity, or the ability to supply the inflected form of some nonce words, emerges early: 78% of the two-year-olds were able to inflect at least one test item. However, mastery, or the ability to consistently supply the correct ending, takes considerably longer to develop, and adultlike levels of provision are not reached until about age 10;0.

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Type
Note
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , February 2005 , pp. 191 - 205
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This study was supported by British Academy grant RB 100556; much of the research was conducted while the author was visiting the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. I would like to thank Ewa Borek, Mariola Busławska, Małgorzata Ciołek, Ewa Czerlińska, Celina Kośmider, Małgorzata Michalak, and Bożena Pławska for their help in collecting the data; Barbara Dąbrowska for organizational support throughout the duration of the project; and Marcin Szczerbiński, Tore Nesset and two anonymous JCL referees for their comments on an earlier draft of the paper. A very special and warm thanks goes to the children and young people from Żłobek nr 1, Przedszkole nr 81 and Szkoła Podstawowa nr 70 in Gdańsk who participated in the experiment. Part of the material discussed here was presented at the International Association for the Study of Child Language Symposium in Madison, Wisconsin in July 2002.