CHILDRENS ANALYSIS OF DERIVATIONAL SUFFIX MEANINGS

This note examined the relation between school-age children's producti on and comprehension of derivational suffixes in nonsense words and th eir knowledge of suffix meaning in real derivatives. Results indicated that knowledge of derivational suffixes was used often in defining lo w-frequency derivatives and that it was significantly correlated with suffix production in the nonsense task. In addition, suffix productivi ty was found to be an important factor determining the comprehension a s well as the production of particular suffixes to convey a range of m eanings.