Acquiring complex structures under minority language conditions: Bilingual acquisition of plural morphology in Welsh

Abstract

This study explored the effects of quantity and quality of input on bilingual children's acquisition of complex plural morphology in Welsh. Study 1 explored the quality of adult input and revealed target-like marking of plural forms in naturalistic adult speech. Study 2 presented eighty-eight 7–11-year-old children, across three bilingual language groups (L1 Welsh, 2L1, and L2 Welsh), with a plural production task. Results revealed performances approaching L1 adult norms among L1 Welsh-speaking bilinguals, but delayed progression among 2L1 and L2 Welsh bilinguals, although analyses of errors revealed various levels of structural knowledge. Forms requiring the addition of a plural suffix were less difficult to acquire than those involving alterations to the root, with each type acquired with greater levels of accuracy with increasing levels of exposure to the language. The implications of these findings for our understanding of bilingual acquisition of complex structures under minority language conditions are discussed.

Tense and plural formation in Welsh–English bilingual children with and without language impairment

“…The plural task showed that both groups were still in the process of acquiring the plural formation patterns in Welsh at the age of 6 years, confirming previous findings on the protracted acquisition rate of the Welsh plural system (Thomas et al . ). This study further revealed that the acquisition of the Welsh plural system is particularly problematic for children with SLI, who differed significantly from their TD peers.…”

“…This is, for example, the case for the ‐ydd suffix, which adjoins to singular nouns indicating person or object (e.g., gobennydd , ‘pillow’) (Thomas et al . ).…”

“…These additional alterations take the form of mutation and other sound alterations, e.g., botwm (‘button’) → botymau (‘buttons’), where the vowel in the penultimate syllable undergoes a sound alteration) (Thomas et al . ) (table ). The most common plural suffixes are ‐(i)au , ‐i , ‐od , ‐oedd , ‐on , ‐ aid and ‐ydd , often used in combination with additional changes in sound quality and/or vowel alternations (Thomas et al .…”

“…The most common plural suffixes are ‐(i)au , ‐i , ‐od , ‐oedd , ‐on , ‐ aid and ‐ydd , often used in combination with additional changes in sound quality and/or vowel alternations (Thomas et al . ) (table ). The suffixes ‐ (i)au and ‐ oedd function solely as plural suffixes, whereas the other suffixes can take on other functions and meaning, and ‐(i)au was the most frequently added suffix.…”

Are Lions Green?: Child L2 Learners’ Interpretation of English Generics and Definite Determiners

“…However, they were only more successful in correctly interpreting bare NPs and not definite NPs. Several studies have found that variations in the input play a role in the rate of acquisition of child L2 learners [26,27] and bilingual children [28][29][30][31][32]. Variation in the input can have an effect on the morphosyntactic domain as well as on the semantic domain [28].…”