Bilingualism as a window into the language faculty: The acquisition of objects in French-speaking children in bilingual and monolingual contexts

Abstract

Where do the two languages of the bilingual child interact? The literature has debated whether bilingual children have delays in the acquisition of direct objects. The variety of methods and languages involved have prevented clear conclusions. In a transitivity-based approach, null objects are a default structural possibility, present in all languages. Since the computation of lexical and syntactic transitivity depends on lexical acquisition, we propose a default retention hypothesis, predicting that bilingual children retain default structures for aspects of syntactic development specifically linked to lexical development (such as objects). Children acquiring French (aged 3;0–4;2, N = 34) in a monolingual context and a French/English bilingual context participated in a study eliciting optional and obligatory direct objects. The results show significant differences between the rates of omissions in the two groups for both types of objects. We consider two models of how the bilingual lexicon may determine the timetable of development of transitivity.

Early emergence of syntactic awareness and cross-linguistic influence in bilingual children’s judgments

“…We know of no research on cross-linguistic transfer in object pronoun placement in bilingual children. Most of the research on bilingual children's object pronoun acquisition has focused on omissions (Müller & Hulk, 2001;Paradis et al, 2005Paradis et al, /2006Pérez-Leroux, Pirvulescu, & Roberge, 2009;Serratrice, Sorace, & Paoli, 2004). In this study, we focus on the order of object pronouns relative to the verb.…”

Bilingual Children's Acquisition of English Verb Morphology: Effects of Language Exposure, Structure Complexity, and Task Type

“…Assuming that variation in input conditions will affect language development, researchers have asked the following question: How robust or sensitive is morphosyntactic acquisition in the face of dual‐language learning? This question has been addressed from both constructivist and generative theoretical perspectives, focusing on both rates and patterns of acquisition (Gathercole, 2007; Müller & Hulk, 2001; Nicoladis, Palmer, & Marentette, 2007; Paradis, Nicoladis, & Crago, 2007; Pérez‐Leroux, Pirvulescu, & Roberge, 2009). This study is concerned with the impact of dual‐language learning on children's rate of morphosyntactic acquisition.…”

The acquisition of dative alternation by German-English bilingual and English monolingual children

“…The hypothesis that interfaces are vulnerable suggests that DA may be vulnerable to crosslinguistic influence as it is a syntax-semantics interface phenomenon which requires mapping of a given syntactic structure to a given semantic composition. Though some former work (notably Montrul, 2006) suggests that the syntax-semantics interface is not automatically susceptible to crosslinguistic influence, work by Pérez-Leroux et al (2009) suggests that subcategorisation frames of verbs may present an area of susceptibility. If crosslinguistic influence is found in DA, this finding will be strengthened and knowledge of the syntaxsemantics interface advanced.…”