Entrenchment and productivity: The role of input in the code-mixing of a German-English bilingual child

2019 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Antje Endesfelder Quick ◽  
Stefan Hartmann ◽  
Ad Backus ◽  
Elena Lieven
Keyword(s):  
Language Production ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Bilingual Child ◽  
Code Mixing ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Multiword Units ◽  
Parental Input ◽  
Selection Of

AbstractThis paper investigates the role of input in the code-mixing (CM) of a German-English bilingual child between the age of 2;3 until 3;11. Supporting a usage-based approach to linguistic theory, multiword units are shown to play an important role in language acquisition scenarios, both in the input children receive as well as in their own early language production.The current study combines findings from Child-directed-speech (CDS) and children’s output to investigate whether utterance-initial, multiword units in the code-mixing of a German-English bilingual child can be traced back to patterns found in the input.The findings reveal that a large proportion of the child code-mixed (78%) and parental input (59%) data instantiate the selection of multiword units. Additionally, we found that many of the units used by the child (74%) correlate with units in the parental input suggesting that bilingual children construct their code-mixed utterances on the basis of both concrete lexical strings and partially schematic patterns they have heard before.

scholarly journals The Building Blocks of Child Bilingual Code-Mixing: A Cross-Corpus Traceback Approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antje Endesfelder Quick ◽  
Stefan Hartmann
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
The Other ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Lexical Knowledge ◽  
Code Mixing ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Individual Input

This paper offers an inductive, exploratory study on the role of input and individual differences in the early code-mixing of bilingual children. Drawing on data from two German-English bilingual children, aged 2–4, we use the traceback method to check whether their code-mixed utterances can be accounted for with the help of constructional patterns that can be found in their monolingual data and/or in their caregivers' input. In addition, we apply the traceback method to check whether the patterns used by one child can also be found in the input of the other child. Results show that patterns found in the code-mixed utterances could be traced back to the input the children receive, suggesting that children extract lexical knowledge from their environment. Additionally, tracing back patterns within each child was more successful than tracing back to the other child's corpus, indicating that each child has their own set of patterns which depends very much on their individual input. As such, these findings can shed new light on the interplay of the two developing grammars in bilingual children and their individual differences.

Entrenchment effects in code-mixing: individual differences in German-English bilingual children

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Antje Endesfelder Quick ◽  
Ad Backus ◽  
Elena Lieven
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
First Language ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Code Mixing ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Theory Of Language

Abstract Following a usage-based approach to language acquisition, lexically specific patterns are considered to be important building blocks for language productivity and feature heavily both in child-directed speech and in the early speech of children (Arnon, Inbal & Morten H. Christiansen. 2017. The role of multiword building blocks in explaining L1-L2 differences. Topics in Cognitive Science 9(3). 621–636; Tomasello, Michael. 2003. Constructing a language: A usage-based theory of language acquisition. Cambridge: Harvard University Press). In order to account for patterns, the traceback method has been widely applied in research on first language acquisition to test the hypothesis that children’s utterances can be accounted for on the basis of a limited inventory of chunks and partially schematic units (Lieven, Elena, Dorothé Salomo & Michael Tomasello. 2009. Two-year-old children’s production of multiword utterances: A usage-based analysis. Cognitive Linguistics 20(3). 481–508). In the current study, we applied the method to code-mixed utterances (n = 1,506) of three German-English bilingual children between 2 and 4 years of age to investigate individual differences in each child’s own inventory of patterns in relation to their input settings. It was shown that units such as I see X as in I see a Kelle ‘I see a trowel’ could be traced back to the child’s own previous productions. More importantly, we see that each child’s inventory of constructions draws heavily on multiword chunks that are strongly dependent on the children’s language input situations.

scholarly journals Acceleration in the bilingual acquisition of phonological structure: Evidence from Polish–English bilingual children

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 713-725 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARCO TAMBURELLI ◽  
EIRINI SANOUDAKI ◽  
GARY JONES ◽  
MICHELLE SOWINSKA
Keyword(s):  
Nonword Repetition ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Consonant Clusters ◽  
Phonological Structure ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
Phonological Complexity ◽  
Repetition Task ◽  
Selection Of

This study examines the production of consonant clusters in simultaneous Polish–English bilingual children and in language-matched English monolinguals (aged 7;01–8;11). Selection of the language pair was based on the fact that Polish allows a greater range of consonant clusters than English. A nonword repetition task was devised in order to examine clusters of different types (obstruent-liquid vs. s + obstruent) and in different word positions (initial vs. medial), two factors that play a significant role in repetition accuracy in monolingual acquisition (e.g., Kirk & Demuth, 2005). Our findings show that bilingual children outperformed monolingual controls in the word initial s + obstruent condition. These results indicate that exposure to complex word initial clusters (in Polish) can accelerate the development of less phonologically complex clusters (in English). This constitutes significant new evidence that the facilitatory effects of bilingual acquisition extend to structural phonological domains. The implications that these results have on competing views of phonological organisation and phonological complexity are also discussed.

The role of person in subject auxiliary inversion in English wh-questions: Evidence from Korean-English bilingual children

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 313-328
Author(s):  
Sunny K Park-Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Elicitation Study ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Main Effect ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
Third Person ◽  
New Evidence

Aims: The present study investigates whether Korean-English (K-E) bilingual children develop subject auxiliary inversion (SAI) in English wh-questions differently from monolingual English (M-E) speaking children. Specifically, an experimental study was designed to determine whether there is an effect of subject person in their acquisition of SAI in English wh-questions, a factor that had been suggested but not tested as a contributing factor in SAI in a previous study. Design: Twenty-six K-E bilingual and 20 M-E preschool-aged children were recruited for an elicitation study testing the effect of person on the use of SAI in wh-questions in English. The experiment consisted of having children interact with puppets in a guessing game that elicited first, second, and third person object- what questions in English. Data and analysis: Data from the experiment were analyzed through a binomial logistic regression, which accounts for the binary nature of the data (auxiliary inversion: present or absent) and identified which variables contribute significantly to the presence and absence of SAI. Findings/conclusions: Results indicated a significant difference between K-E and M-E groups and a significant main effect for person on SAI for the K-E group. The paper proposes that the [prs] feature is part of the bundle of features that drives the movement of the features in T to C. Originality: The paper contributes evidence for a link between the person feature and SAI, a link that has not been seen before for wh-question research. Significance/implications: The new evidence of a possible link between subject person and auxiliary inversion may open a window to new avenues for wh-question acquisition research.

Decontextualized language production in two languages: An investigation of children's word definition skills in Korean and English

2011 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
JENNIFER YUSUN KANG
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Production ◽  
First Language ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Korean And English ◽  
Schooling Experience ◽  
Cross Language ◽  
Word Definition

ABSTRACTThis study aimed to identify factors that contribute to bilingual children's decontextualized language production and investigate how schooling experience and bilingualism affect the development of this skill. The word definition skills of seventy Korean–English bilingual children whose first language was Korean, yet who had been schooled in English, were analyzed. The findings indicate that contrary to the results from previous studies, the participants' decontextualized language production was much better in their home language than in their school language, when considering both the formal linguistic structure and the communicative adequacy of their word definitions. In addition, limited cross-language transfer across tasks was present and cross-language contribution was observed only in the children's ability to achieve communicative adequacy, but not in their ability to construct conventional definition syntax. The results are discussed in terms of the linguistic and typological distance between the two languages and the potential effects of language-learning contexts.

Influences of language input and production on the language skills of Persian-English bilingual immersion preschool children

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-106
Author(s):  
Bita Payesteh ◽  
Lizbeth H. Finestack
Keyword(s):  
Preschool Children ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Language Performance ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Language Input ◽  
Old Persian ◽  
The U.S

Abstract The purpose of this study was to better understand bilingualism in Persian-English preschool-aged children, and how their language performance across two domains of language related to their language production and parental language input. Participants were 15, 2- through 5-year old Persian-English bilingual children attending a Persian immersion preschool in the U.S. The participants completed a battery of language tasks in English and Persian and participants’ parents provided language input and production information. Data indicate that greater input in the heritage language outside school, Persian, will likely lead to better Persian skills, while greater English input may negatively affect the children’s Persian skills. Participants received consistent native-level Persian input in school, yet the results suggest that Persian as a heritage language in the U.S. may be susceptible to the same vulnerability that affects other non-mainstream languages.

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