Reverse Derivation in the Russian Language and the Speech Activity of Children and Adults

Reverse word formation occupies a much more significant place among other methods of word formation than is commonly believed. If in language there are indeed rare cases of words arising through reverse derivation, then in the speech activity of both adults and children, cases of reverse derivation are quite frequent. The study provides examples of the construction and use by adult native speakers of words formed using reverse word formation, and concludes that the widespread use of such words in the speech of adults is hampered only by control, which does not allow an adult native speaker to use an occasional word mentally formed by him in speech. In children, due to insufficient speech experience, control does not yet operate fully, and therefore children often use occasionalisms formed through reverse derivation in their speech, which is proven by data from recordings of children’s spontaneous speech. In addition, the study is based on data from an experimental study that tested children’s tendency to reverse word formation (80 children: 16 children 4 years old, 16-5 years old, 16-6 years old, 16-7 years old and 16-8 years old). As a result of the analysis of the experiment, it was concluded that the “peak” tendency for reverse word formation in children is observed at 5-6 years of age (when the method of reverse word formation has already been mastered, and control has not yet been fully included). It was also revealed that compensatory verbal creativity, caused by ignorance of a common word, is replaced by conscious creativity gradually, over several years, and the time of transition from compensatory creativity to conscious creativity in the field of word formation is determined by the time the child masters one or another word formation model, the speed of this transition - individual characteristics of children. In general, the results of the study force us to look at reverse derivation from a new angle - as an important fact of an individual’s speech activity.