Acquisition of deverbal compounds by French-speaking preschoolers

Children’s creation of novel words is thought to be guided by several variables of their language(s), including the simplicity and frequency of required morphology and/or target structure (Clark, 1993). This study documents children’s acquisition of French deverbal Verb–Object compounds (e.g., lave-vaisselle ‘wash-dishes’ meaning dishwasher). Research from previous studies suggests that simple infrequent forms such as these will be acquired later (i.e., around 5 years). 34 monolingual French-speaking children between 3 and 5 years produced and indicated their understanding of novel deverbal compounds. The children’s vocabulary size was more strongly positively related to their production and comprehension of novel compounds than age. In comprehension, children often misinterpreted the Object of novel compounds as the subject of the action in the Verb. These results confirm that this simple infrequent form is acquired late.