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The Theoretical Relevance of Pre- and Protomorphology in Language Acquisition

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Yearbook of Morphology 1994

Part of the book series: Yearbook of Morphology ((YOMO))

Abstract

The aim of this contribution is to show the relevance of a theory-guided study of the very first phases of morphological acquisition (pre- and protomorphology, cf. 2.2) for linguistic theory in general and for the concept of modularity in particular. Our approach is based on (1) naturalness theory (particularly the model of Natural Morphology, cf. Kilani-Schoch 1988) with its distinction of (a) grammatical rules vs. extragrammatical operations and (b) prototypical vs. non-prototypical morphology (cf. Dressler & Merlini 1994a), (2) the model of self-organizing processes (autopoiesis, cf. Karpf 1991) and (3) the use of functional explanation (cf. Dressler 1994a). The discussion will be illustrated by examples drawn from the first samples of data collected in an incipient international project on “The Acquisition of Pre- and Protomorphology”.1 This project is an attempt to compare the acquisition of morphology in about two dozen languages by children from the age of 14 months onward.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Sprachwissenschaft, Universität Wien, Berggasse 11, A-1090, Wien, Austria

    Wolfgang U. Dressler & Annemarie Karpf

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  1. Wolfgang U. Dressler
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  2. Annemarie Karpf
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. General Linguistics, Institute of Generative Linguistics, Free University, Amsterdam/Holland, The Netherlands

    Geert Booij

  2. P.J. Meertens Institute of the Royal Netherlands, Academy of Arts and Sciences, The Netherlands

    Jaap van Marle

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Dressler, W.U., Karpf, A. (1995). The Theoretical Relevance of Pre- and Protomorphology in Language Acquisition. In: Booij, G., van Marle, J. (eds) Yearbook of Morphology 1994. Yearbook of Morphology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3714-2_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3714-2_4

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