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Cross-language Influences in Bilingual Processing and Second Language Acquisition
Edited by Irina Elgort, Anna Siyanova-Chanturia and Marc Brysbaert
[Bilingual Processing and Acquisition 16] 2023
► pp. 294–315

Chapter 12
Cross-linguistic influences in bilingual morphosyntactic acquisition

| University of Edinburgh

The interaction between the bilingual child’s two languages, coined as Cross-linguistic influence (CLI), is a well-reported phenomenon in bilingual language development. Although CLI has long dominated bilingualism research, issues about its nature (a representational change or by-product of language co-activation), timing and duration remain less well understood. Is CLI only observed during early bilingual development, and does it fade away as children grow older? Does it lead to qualitative and quantitative differences in language development between bilinguals and monolinguals? The present chapter addresses these questions by reviewing state-of-the-art studies reporting CLI in simultaneous and sequential bilingual children’s acquisition of morphology and syntax. We also discuss how extra-linguistic factors such as age of acquisition, dominance, input quality and quantity modulate CLI.

Keywords: Crosslingustic influence, child bilingualism, syntax, interface phenomena, input
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Defining CLI
  • 3.Linguistic conditions for CLI
    • 3.1Interface phenomena and CLI
    • 3.2Surface overlap and CLI
  • 4.Nature of CLI: Representation vs. processing
    • 4.1Representations and CLI
    • 4.2Representational differences in the absence of transfer: Economy principles
    • 4.3CLI as a by-product of co-activation and priming of the two languages
    • 4.4Parsing strategies and CLI
  • 5.Individual factors modulating CLI
    • 5.1Age
    • 5.2Dominance
    • 5.3Input quantity and quality and CLI
    • 5.4CLI and language co-activation as drivers for language change
  • 6.Concluding remarks and future research
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 1 May 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/bpa.16.12cho
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