The early production of compounds in Lithuanian

e-Book ISBN 9789027264978. Book DOI: 10.1075/lald.61This study analyses Lithuanian children’s ability to produce compounds. The longitudinal data consist of the recordings of four children (1;7–3;11), two boys and two girls and the matching set of child-directed speech (CDS). Despite the fact that compounding is a productive pattern of word formation in Lithuanian, it is not a preferred method for making a noun, in contrast to such languages as German or English. The data analysis reveals that compounds in the children’s speech appear rarely, although they emerge quite early as pure imitations of adult utterances. The production of compounds in later stages of language acquisition, especially when used spontaneously, shows that they are used mostly as lexicalized itemsLituanistikos katedraVytauto Didžiojo universiteta