Slovotvorná Motivácia V Jazykovom Vývine Dieťaťa

The aim of the paper is to analyse the role of word­formation motivation in child’s language development. The character of the research problem requires a transdisciplinary approach. For this reason, the author looks back on derivational theories as well as on researches of applied linguistics in Slovakia and abroad. Analysis of the relation between word­formation motivation and language development is based on author’s empirical findings on the children’s nonce words, the role of word­formation motivation in the development of the child’s cognitive and linguistic abilities and in the comprehension of an instructional text. The paper consists of: 1) the analysis of theoretical background from the point of view of derivatology as well as of applied linguistics; 2) the analysis of relevant research findings and the clarification of relationship between particular aspects of this topic; 3) the discussion about the functions of word­formation motivation in child’s language development confronting the author’s findings with the findings of other researches in this field.