STEM ENDINGS AND THE ACQUISITION OF INFLECTIONS

1 June 1972

journal article
Published by Wiley in Language Learning

Vol. 22 (1) , 43-50
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1972.tb00072.x

Abstract

This study attempted to determine if the stem ending to which an inflection is affixed influenced the acquisition of the plural allomorphs by young children. The materials consisted of forty‐six nonsense monosyllables, two examples for each possible, final, single consonant in English. Using the technique developed by Berko, the researcher discovered that children do significantly better inflecting some stems requiring a particular allomorph than inflecting other stems requiring the same allomorph. In other words, the stem ending does influence the acquisition of the plural allomorphs. Children's rules for plural inflections are also discussed briefly.

Keywords

This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:

THE ACQUISITION OF MORPHOLOGICAL INFLECTIONS BY CHILDREN FOUR TO TEN¹
Language Learning, 1970
The Child's Learning of English Morphology
WORD, 1958