Y.Zaretsky, B.P.Lange, H.A.Euler, K.Neumann ACTA LINGUISTICA 22 RESEARCH ________ PIZZAS, PIZZEN, PIZZE: FREQUENCY, ICONICITY, CUE VALIDITY, AND PRODUCTIVITY IN THE PLURAL ACQUISITION OF GERMAN PRESCHOOLERS 1 Y.Zaretsky 1 , B.P.Lange 2 , H.A.Euler 1 , K.Neumann 1 1 Bochum, Germany 2 Göttingen, Germany Summary: Some factors which influence the choice of plural markers in German are discussed: frequency of nouns and plural allomorphs, iconicity, cue validity, productivity, and gender specific distribution of plural allo- morphs. The evidence comes from studies on a language screening con- ducted in the state of Hesse in Germany in 2007-2010 with three-, four-, and five-year-old monolingual and multilingual children. 1. Introduction A total of 7,394 three-, four-, and five-year-old monolingual and multilingual children was tested in 2007-2010 in several studies conducted in the state of Hesse (Germany) in order to develop and validate a new language screening, the Kindersprachscreening (KiSS) [Euler et al. 2010; Neumann et al., in prepa- ration; Neumann et al. 2011]. Furthermore, 476 four-year-old children were tested with the language test SETK 3-5 [Grimm 2001], which examines among others the morpho-syntactic abilities and was used as a reference test for KiSS. Extensive test protocols enabled us to carry out additional research on other to- pics such as plural acquisition patterns. This paper analyzes some of the factors which can influence the choice of plural markers in German: frequency of nouns and plural markers in the input, cue validity, productivity, iconicity, and gender specific distribution of plural markers. This analysis was used in the construction of eight models explaining pluralization strategies in preschoolers acquiring German in [Zaretsky et al., submitted a]. As was demonstrated in [Zaretsky et al., submitted b], no plural marker was used as the universal one in the above named studies by German children and by immigrant children acquiring German. Hence, it can be assumed that not a default plural marker compatible with any phonetic-phonological environment and any gender, but a more sophisticated system of other factors is used when constructing plural forms. The constellations of such factors and their respective 1 This study has been financed by the Hessian Ministry of Social Welfare and by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Science (DLR 1GJ0982).