Really transfer?

From the beginning of this century fascinating work has been carried out on the simultaneous acquisition of two languages from birth in the form of diary studies for example, that by Ronjat (1913). Many aspects of monolingual language acquisition have been studied in the same way, whereby researchers generally observed their own children, for example, Stern and Stern (1928). The modern research strategy is to audiotape or videotape the speech of young children at fixed intervals. Of course, a quantitative analysis can be carried out for both diary studies and more recent types of longitudinal study. However, researchers such as Ronjat (1913) do not provide us with exact quantitative results. Notwithstanding, these studies deserve to be taken seriously and I think it is possible to interpret some of the observations they contain as good and “reliable” evidence and compare these with results from modern longitudinal studies, where exact quantification is an important issue. I therefore think that the quantitative results of my review of existing studies on the acquisition of German subordinate clauses in bilingual children can be taken seriously, although I agree with François Grosjean and Elizabeth Lanza, who object that the quantitative differences between monolingual and bilingual children's errors are perhaps artefacts of the setting in which the children have been recorded. That I considered diary studies as well disappointed one commentator, Annick De Houwer, who would have preferred a comparison of modern studies only.

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Variations dans l’acquisition du marqueur ergatif en basque par des enfants bilingues basque-français

Language Interaction and Acquisition / Langage Interaction et Acquisition ◽

10.1075/lia.5.2.03dug ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 227-251 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Isabelle Duguine ◽

Barbara Köpke ◽

Jean-Luc Nespoulous

Keyword(s):

Longitudinal Study ◽

Language Acquisition ◽

Age Of Acquisition ◽

Bilingual Children ◽

Research Protocol ◽

Developmental Sequences ◽

Task Differences

This paper presents the findings of a longitudinal study of seven Basque-French bilingual children and three monolingual Basque-speaking children concerning the acquisition of the morphological marking of the ergative case in Basque. Following the hypotheses put forth to account for the development of early bilingualism, the aim of the study was to establish whether bilingual children follow the same developmental sequences as monolingual children during the acquisition of the ergative case. The research protocol we have developed involves relatively unguided as well as constrained data focusing on the production of the ergative case in these two contexts. The data show significant inter-individual and inter-task differences in the production of the ergative case that contribute to some variation in language acquisition. The findings lead us to question classifications of early bilinguals based on age of acquisition alone.

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Ambiguity and transfer in bilingual first language acquisition?

Bilingualism Language and Cognition ◽

10.1017/s1366728998000339 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 1 (3) ◽

pp. 187-188 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

JEANINE TREFFERS-DALLER

Keyword(s):

Language Acquisition ◽

First Language ◽

Target Language ◽

Subordinate Clause ◽

Bilingual Children ◽

First Language Acquisition ◽

Correct Position ◽

Subordinate Clauses ◽

German Child ◽

Finite Verb

Natascha Müller presents a very interesting analysis of the structure of the German subordinate clause in bilingual first language acquisition. The main issue in this paper is to explain the fact that some bilingual children – but not all of them – display non-target language structures in German subordinate clauses. That is, the finite verb does not appear in the final position of the subordinate clause. These non-target structures can in part be explained by transfer, but this cannot be the whole story, because some monolingual children produce these structures as well. Bilingual children, though, appear to have problems with the German subordinate clause more frequently than monolingual children. Interestingly, acquiring the target structures is a slow process for children who produce non-target structures. Ivar, the French-German child Müller discusses in most detail, for example, needs two years to acquire the correct position of the finite verb in German subordinate clauses. Müller argues that the problems arise because the input children receive is ambiguous: the finite verb does not always appear in the finite position in German subordinate clauses in adult speech. The ambiguity of this situation opens the way to transfer. In their uncertainty, the children turn to their other language as a relief strategy.

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macrostructure of elicited narratives by bilingual children: an analysis of the factor age of onset

ZAS Papers in Linguistics ◽

10.21248/zaspil.62.2019.441 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 62 ◽

pp. 7-31

Author(s):

Kristin Haake

Keyword(s):

Quantitative Analysis ◽

Language Acquisition ◽

Age Of Onset ◽

Bilingual Children ◽

Narrative Ability ◽

Language Promotion ◽

A Current ◽

Over Time ◽

Turkish German

In this paper, data from a current study on bilingual language acquisition and language promotion of children is presented. 96 narratives from 32 Turkish-German and Russian-German bilingual children were examined with regard to the acquisition of narrative ability in three rounds of tests. The macrostructure of each narrative was evaluated based on the theories of Westby (2005), Stein and Glenn (1977) and Gagarina et al. (2012). In the quantitative analysis, the factor age of onset (AoO) was considered and therefore, two hypotheses were introduced: 1) There is an influence of AoO on the narrative ability of L2 German bilingual children. And 2) The narrative ability will converge over time and after three years there will be no difference between the groups. Neither of those hypotheses could be confirmed by the examined narrative data. Hence, other influences on narrative ability were discussed in the last chapter and prospects for further research were given. In sum, the article shows that more narrative data of these children should be collected to make a comprehensive conclusion about the influence of AoO on narrative ability.

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Transfer Phenomena in Bilingual Language Acquisition: The Case of Caused-Motion Constructions

Languages ◽

10.3390/languages6010025 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 25

Author(s):

Nikolas Koch ◽

Katharina Günther

Keyword(s):

Quantitative Analysis ◽

Language Acquisition ◽

Qualitative Analysis ◽

Language Use ◽

Age Groups ◽

Bilingual Children ◽

Control Groups ◽

Different Types ◽

Motion Constructions ◽

Linguistic Phenomenon

Usage-based approaches suggest that children gradually build abstract syntactic patterns, called constructions, through processes of abstraction and schematization from the input they receive. Bilingual children have the challenge of learning two sets of non-equivalent constructions when they build their constructicon. This can result in deviations from monolinguals, which are commonly referred to as transfer. Targeting the expression of the caused-motion construction, the present study focuses on idiosyncratic utterances, those that do not correspond to monolingual adult language use, in three different age groups (4, 6, and 8 years old) of German–French bilingual children in comparison to monolingual control groups. The quantitative analysis showed that idiosyncrasies could be found in both groups, but with significantly higher rates in bilinguals at all ages. In a qualitative analysis, idiosyncratic utterances were clustered into three different types: syntactic patterns, use of verbs, and directional phrases. Regarding the analysis of these types, the influence of French could be shown. In order to classify this linguistic phenomenon in a usage-based approach, we propose to consider transfer as a form of overgeneralization within the bilingual constructicon.

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An Improved Quantitative Image Analyser

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100078663 ◽

1977 ◽

Vol 35 ◽

pp. 226-227

Author(s):

J.P. Fallon ◽

P.J. Gregory ◽

C.J. Taylor

Keyword(s):

Feature Extraction ◽

Quantitative Analysis ◽

Frequency Content ◽

General Sense ◽

Physical Measurements ◽

Quantitative Image ◽

Image Analyser ◽

Automatic Methods ◽

Quantitative Results

Quantitative image analysis systems have been used for several years in research and quality control applications in various fields including metallurgy and medicine. The technique has been applied as an extension of subjective microscopy to problems requiring quantitative results and which are amenable to automatic methods of interpretation.Feature extraction. In the most general sense, a feature can be defined as a portion of the image which differs in some consistent way from the background. A feature may be characterized by the density difference between itself and the background, by an edge gradient, or by the spatial frequency content (texture) within its boundaries. The task of feature extraction includes recognition of features and encoding of the associated information for quantitative analysis.Quantitative Analysis. Quantitative analysis is the determination of one or more physical measurements of each feature. These measurements may be straightforward ones such as area, length, or perimeter, or more complex stereological measurements such as convex perimeter or Feret's diameter.

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Quantitative Analysis of Pyrazines and Their Perceptual Interactions in Soy Sauce Aroma Type Baijiu

Foods ◽

10.3390/foods10020441 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 441

Author(s):

Yan Yan ◽

Shuang Chen ◽

Yao Nie ◽

Yan Xu

Keyword(s):

Mass Spectrometry ◽

Quantitative Analysis ◽

Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography ◽

Alcohol Solution ◽

Soy Sauce ◽

Tandem Mass ◽

Odor Thresholds ◽

Quantitative Results ◽

Odor Activity Value ◽

The Impact

Pyrazines are important compounds in soy sauce aroma type Baijiu (SSAB). In this work, a total of 16 pyrazines were analyzed using ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC–MS/MS) in SSAB. The quantitative results showed that 2,3,5,6-tetramethylpyrazine, 2,6-dimethylpyrazine and 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine were the three most concentrated pyrazines. The highest odor activity value (OAV) was determined for 2-ethyl-3,5-dimethylpyrazine. Quantitative analysis combined with descriptive sensory analysis revealed that sub-threshold pyrazines (2,3-dimethylpyrazine, 2,3-diethylpyrazine, 2,3-diethyl-5-methylpyrazine and 2-acetyl-3-methylpyrazine) are significantly correlated with the roasted aroma in SSAB. Our study focused on the impact of sub-threshold pyrazines on the perception of roasted aroma in SSAB. The effect of the sub-threshold pyrazines was detected by the addition of various pyrazines in SSAB samples, despite their sub-threshold concentrations. Furthermore, the presence of sub-threshold pyrazines in dilute alcohol solution resulted in a significant reduction in the odor thresholds of supra-threshold pyrazines. Sensory investigation indicated that pyrazines have a synergistic effect on the perception of roasted aroma. The results highlighted the contribution of some pyrazines to the roasted aroma in SSAB despite their sub-threshold concentrations.

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Different speakers, different grammars

Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism ◽

10.1075/lab.2.3.01dab ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 2 (3) ◽

pp. 219-253 ◽

Cited By ~ 96

Author(s):

Ewa Dąbrowska

Keyword(s):

Second Language Acquisition ◽

Language Acquisition ◽

Language Learners ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Linguistic Knowledge ◽

Inflectional Morphology ◽

Subordinate Clauses ◽

General Rules ◽

Widespread Belief ◽

Ultimate Attainment

This article reviews several recent studies suggesting that — contrary to a widespread belief — adult monolingual native speakers of the same language do not share the same mental grammar. The studies examined various aspects of linguistic knowledge, including inflectional morphology, passives, quantifiers, and more complex constructions with subordinate clauses. The findings suggest that, in some cases, language learners attend to different cues in the input and end up with different grammars; in others, some speakers extract only fairly specific, ‘local’ generalizations which apply to particular subclasses of items while others acquire more abstract rules which apply ‘across the board’. At least some of these differences are education-related: more educated speakers appear to acquire more general rules, possibly as a result of more varied linguistic experience. These findings have interesting consequences for research on bilingualism, particularly for research on ultimate attainment in second language acquisition, as well as important methodological implications for all language sciences.

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