Resumen

Since 1997 we have been researching the acquisition of instrumentals, initially, compounds, then dor- derived nominals and finally, a comparison of both forms. Spanish-speaking children of ages between 2 and 8 were asked to produce the researched forms as names for non-existent instruments under varied experimental circumstances. Throughout 2004 a case study was carried out to record spontaneous productions of both verb-noun compounds and -dor instrumentals by three children of 2, 3 and 7 years of age. This paper presents the data-gathering procedures, the analysis of the results obtained in this case study and the interpretation of these spontaneous productions in the light of the results discussed in previous investigations.