Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools Vol.43 53-65 January 2012. doi:10.1044/0161-1461(2011/10-0053)
© American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
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Article

Acquiring Knowledge of Derived Nominals and Derived Adjectives in Context

Sally A. Marinelliea
Lynn A. Kneilea
a Ohio University, Athens

Correspondence to Sally A. Marinellie: marinels{at}ohio.edu

Purpose: This research investigated children's ability to acquire semantic and syntactic knowledge of derived nominals and derived adjectives in the context of short passages. The study also investigated the relation of morphological awareness and the ability to acquire knowledge of derived words in context.

Method: A total of 106 children in Grade 4 were given an author-created evaluation, the Derivational Acquisition in Context Evaluation (DAICE), which consisted of several short passages. Each passage contained two instances of a target base word followed by one instance of a derived form of the base word. A multiple-choice measure was administered to assess the children's knowledge of 12 derived words (6 nominals and 6 adjectives). A measure of morphological awareness was given to assess the children's relational knowledge between root words and their suffixes.

Results: No significant differences were found for overall performance on derived nominals and derived adjectives. However, the acquisition of semantic and syntactic knowledge was dependent on target word type. A significant relation was found between performance on the measure of morphological awareness and performance on derived nominals.

Conclusion: This research provided evidence for fast mapping of derived nominals and derived adjectives within the context of short passages. Future directions of related research are suggested.

KEY WORDS: reading, literacy development, derivational suffixes, morphological awareness, vocabulary, school-age children


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