Volume 21, Winter 1999
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Browsing Volume 21, Winter 1999 by Subject "Language acquisition"
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- ItemOpen AccessCalgary Working Papers in Linguistics, Volume 21, Winter 1999(University of Calgary, 1999-01) Atkey, Susan; Belland, Jana; Rowsell, Lorna V; Strickland, MelanieThe editors of, this volume, Susan Atkey, Jana Belland, Melanie Strickland and Lorna Rowsell are pleased to present the twenty-first issue of the Calgary Working Papers in Linguistics published by the department of Linguistics at the University of Calgary. The papers contained in this volume represent works in progress and as such should not be considered in any way final or definitive.
- ItemOpen AccessInfant bilingualism and the Pro-drop parameter(University of Calgary, 1999-01) Andrews, EllenNo research has been done to assess the occurrence of null and overt subjects in young bilinguals simultaneously acquiring a [+pro-drop] and a [-pro-drop] language. Previous research indicates that monolinguals set the pro-drop parameter at a very early age. Failure to use null and overt subjects language appropriately in this population can be attributed to performance, rather than competence, factors. Research also indicates that bilingual language acquisition is neither significantly qualitatively nor quantitatively different from monolingual language acquisition. However, code-mixing is a phenomenon that characterizes bilingual acquisition. Syntactic code-mixing is extremely rare. Code-mixing does not stem from a lack of language differentiation (the Unitary Language Hypothesis) but is instead attributable to factors such as language dominance, stage of development and sociolinguistic factors. As such, it is predicted that young bilinguals simultaneously acquiring a [+pro-drop] and a [-pro-drop] language will have similar levels of null and overt subjects to monolinguals acquiring each type of language. However, syntactic code-mixing may lead to a slightly higher incidence of null subjects in the [-pro-drop] language than in monolinguals acquiring this type of language. It is proposed that a longitudinal study be carried out to test these predictions.
- ItemOpen AccessSplit INFL and the acquisition of Neg and Aux(University of Calgary, 1999-01) Hanson, RebeccaBecause child language is human language, it is important that proposed linguistic theories be able to account equally well for both child and adult speech. This paper examines a model of split-INFL, which was proposed for adult language, from the perspective of acquisition. With a focus on the acquisition of English negatives auxiliaries, I test the ability of this model to account for the earliest observed stages of child speech in these areas. Data from several children learning English is considered and the model is found able to predict and explain the common patterns. The hierarchical structure within INFL accounts for the word order in the first instances of negation, the relative order of appearance between negatives and auxiliaries, and the fact that the earliest auxiliaries were negated. The success in these areas suggests that a further, crosslinguistic look at the role of split-INFL in acquisition would be worthwhile.