Syntactic transfer in a Cantonese–English bilingual child

Abstract

Research on early bilingual development has suggested that syntactic transfer in bilingual acquisition is dependent on patterns of dominance and properties of the dual input the child is exposed to. In a case study of a Hong Kong bilingual child we present evidence of transfer from Cantonese to English in three areas where the two languages contrast typologically: wh-in-situ interrogatives, null objects and prenominal relatives are observed at a period when Cantonese is dominant as measured by MLUw. Comparisons with monolingual development show both qualitative and quantitative differences attributable to transfer. Language dominance is seen as the major determinant of transfer, with input ambiguity playing a role in the domain of null objects. While two distinct and separate linguistic systems are simultaneously developing in the bilingual mind, the pervasiveness of transfer implies a high degree of interaction between them. The findings show that the bilingual subject in our case study has taken a different path from monolinguals toward the target.

The emergence of competing modules in bilingualism

“…However, because mesa is richly interconnected with other Spanish words, constructions, postures and meanings, it receives far more activation than table during Spanish speech. On the other hand, when the child's two languages are less perfectly balanced in strength, we find a far greater level of intrusion of the stronger language (SL) into sentences of the weaker language (WL) [9,14]. In such cases, continual practice with the WL eventually allows it to 'fight off' intrusions from the SL.…”

Determiner use in Italian Swedish and Italian German children: Do Swedish and German represent the same parameter setting?

“…According to some authors, language dominance can be the reason for transfer phenomena such as mixed language utterances and cross-linguistic influence in monolingual utterances (Petersen 1988, Genesee et al 1995, Bernardini & Schlyter 2004, Yip & Matthews 2000. More specifically, language influence occurs when one language is dominant, and it is unidirectional: it is always the weaker language that is subject to influence from the stronger language.…”

“…According to some authors, in cases of unbalanced bilingualism, the stronger language is more likely to influence the weaker one (Bernardini & Schlyter 2004, Yip & Matthews 2000. If these assumptions are correct, the following is expected:  Since the children's stronger languages are the Germanic ones, their Italian is expected to undergo influence.…”

Down two steps: Are bilinguals delayed in the acquisition of recursively embedded PPs?

“…This remains an impressive achievement when one considers that typical bilingual children spend less time in a given language than their monolingual peers. At the same time, it is clear that bilingualism leads to differences in the patterns of the acquisition of various grammatical properties (YIP & MATTHEWS, 2000). This is known as bilingual interdependence effects (MEISEL, 2007).…”