Cover not available
Article published In:
Internal and External Factors in Child Second Language Acquisition
Edited by Aafke Hulk and Theodoros Marinis
[Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 1:3] 2011
► pp. 238–264

Internal and external factors in the child L2 development of the German determiner phrase

| University of Mannheim

This paper studies the development of the German determiner phrase (DP) in 60 child second-language (L2) learners of German between the ages of 3;5 and 7;0. We consider case and gender marking as well as gender concord and test for effects of internal (age, age of onset) and external (length of exposure) factors. Further, developmental patterns are compared between child L1 and L2 acquisition. The results show no contingency of child L2 performance and age factors, yet strong correlations with length of exposure. Like child L1 acquirers, child L2 learners are found to proceed through similar developmental stages, and they establish lexical gender distinctions before syntactic case distinctions in inflection. These findings are discussed in the context of current generative approaches and the role of age in child and adult L2 acquisition.

Keywords: child L2 acquisition, morphosyntax, determiner phrase, age effects, critical period, input
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The German DP
  • 3.Paths of development in the acquisition of the German DP
    • 3.1Child L1 acquisition
      • 3.1.1Case
      • 3.1.2Gender
    • 3.2Child L2 acquisition
  • 4.The experimental study
    • 4.1Participants
    • 4.2Materials
    • 4.3Procedure and analysis
    • 4.4Results
      • 4.4.1Case marking
      • 4.4.2Gender marking
      • 4.4.3Gender marking and gender concord
      • 4.4.4Consistency
      • 4.4.5Interactions between case and gender: Developmental patterns
      • 4.4.6Gender and case systems: Internal and external factors
      • 4.4.7The morphosyntax of DPs and lexical and syntactic development
        • Lexical development
        • Syntactic development
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 29 July 2011
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.1.3.02hop
References
Bast, C
(2003) Der Altersfaktor im Zweitspracherwerb — die Entwicklung der grammatischen Kategorien Numerus, Genus und Kasus in der Nominalphrase im ungesteuerten Zweitspracherwerb des Deutschen bei russischen Lernerinnen. PhD dissertation. University of Cologne.
Bewer, F
(2004) Der Erwerb des Artikels als Genusanzeiger im deutschen Erstspracherwerb. ZAS-Papers in Linguistics, 331, 87–140.Google Scholar
Bittner, D
(2006) Case before Gender in the Acquisition of German. Folia Linguistica, 151, 115–134. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Blom, E., Polišenská, D. & Weermann, F
(2006) Variation in inflection: a comparison of agreement inflection in child L1, child L2 amd adult L2 Dutch. Morphology, 161, 313–336. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Blom, E., Polišenská D. & Weermann, F
(2008) Articles, adjectives and age of onset: the acquisition of Dutch grammatical gender. Second Language Research, 241, 297–331. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bruhn de Garavito, J., & White, L
(2000) Second language acquisition of Spanish DPs: The status of grammatical features. In S. C. Howell & S. Fish & T. Keith-Lucas (Eds.), BUCLD 24: Proceedings from the 24th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 164–175). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla.Google Scholar
Carroll, S
(1989) Second-language acquisition and the computational paradigm. Langauge Learning, 391, 535–594. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Carstens, V
(2000) Concord in minimalist theory. Linguistic Inquiry, 311, 319–355. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chondrogianni, V. & Marinis, T.
this volume). Asynchronous development of vocabulary, morphology and complex syntax in successive bilingual children: differential effects of internal and external factors.
Clahsen, H
(1984) Der Erwerb von Kasusmarkierungen in der deutschen Kindersprache. Linguistische Berichte, 891, 1–31.Google Scholar
Clahsen, H., Eisenbeiss, S., & Vainikka, A
(1994) The seeds of structure. In B. D. Schwartz & T. Hoekstra (Eds.), Language Acquisition Studies in Generative Grammar (pp. 85–118). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cornips, L. & Hulk, A
(2008) Factors of success and failure in the acquisition of grammatical gender in Dutch. Second Langauge Research, 241, 267–296. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dimroth, C
(2007) Zweitsprachigkeit bei Kindern und Jugendlichen: Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede. In T. Anstatt (Ed.), Mehrsprachigkeit bei Kindern und Erwachsenen, (pp. 115–138). Tübingen: Attempto.Google Scholar
Eichler, N., Jansen, V. & Müller, N
in press). Gender acquisition in French-German, Italian-German, Spanish-German and Italian-French speaking children. University of Wuppertal, Manuscript.
Eisenbeiss, S
(2000) The acquisition of the Determiner Phrase in German child language. In M-A Friedemann & L. Rizzi (Eds.), The Acquisition of Syntax: Studies in Comparative Developmental Linguistics (pp. 26–62). London: Longman.Google Scholar
(2002) Merkmalsgesteuerter Grammatikerwerb. Eine Untersuchung zum Erwerb der Struktur und Flexion der Nominalphrase. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Düsseldorf.
Foucart, A
(2008) Grammatical Gender Processing in French as a First and a Second Language. PhD dissertation, University of Provence and University of Edinburgh.
Franceschina, F
(2005) Fossilized Second Language Grammars: The Acquisition of Grammatical Gender. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Granfeldt, J
(2000) The acquisition of the determiner phrase in bilingual and second language French. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 31, 263–280. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grimm, H
(2001) Sprachentwicklungstest für drei- bis fünfjährige Kinder (SETK 3–5). Hogrefe, Göttingen.Google Scholar
Guillelmon, D. & Grosjean, F
(2001) The gender marking effect in spoken word recognition: the case of bilinguals. Memory and Cognition, 191, 503–511. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haznedar, B
(2006) Persistent problems with case morphology in L2 acquisition. In C. Lleó (Ed.), Interfaces in Multilingualism (pp. 179–206). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haznedar, B., & Schwartz, B. D
(1997) Are there optional infinitives in child L2 acquisition? In E. Hughes & M. Hughes & A. Greenhill (Eds.), BUCLD 21: Proceedings of the 21st Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 257–268). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla.Google Scholar
Hopp, H
(2007) Ultimate Attainment at the Interfaces in Second Language Acquisition: Grammar & Processing. PhD dissertation. University of Groningen.
Hopp, H., Frank, S. & Tracy, R
(2009) Evaluationsstudie: Sprachförderung mit dem Elefanten — Abschlussbericht. Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend. Berlin.Google Scholar
Hopp, H., & Schwartz, B. D
(2002) Case, (re-)set and match: functional features in the L2 German nominal domain. In J. Costa & M. J. Freitas (Eds.), Proceedings of the GALA 2001 Conference on Language Acquisition (pp. 112–120). Lisbon: Associacao Portuguesa de Linguistica.Google Scholar
Hulk, A. & Cornips, L
(2006) The acquisition of definite determiners in child L2 Dutch: problems with neuter gender nouns. In S. Unsworth, T. Parodi, A. Sorace & M. Young-Scholten (Eds.), Paths of Development in L1 and L2 Acquisition (pp. 107–134). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kaltenbacher, E. & Klages, H
(2006) Sprachprofil und Sprachförderung bei Vorschulkindern mit Migrationshintergrund. In B. Ahrenholz (Ed.), Kinder mit Migrationshintergrund —Spracherwerb und Fördermöglichkeiten (pp. 80–97). Fillibach, Freiburg.Google Scholar
Kiese-Himmel, C
(2005) Aktiver Wortschatztest für 3- bis 5-jährige Kinder (AWST-R). Beltz, Göttingen.Google Scholar
Kostyuk, N
(2005) Der Zweitspracherwerb beim Kind. Eine Studie am Beispiel des Erwerbs des Deutschen durch drei russische Kinder. Dr. Kovac, Hamburg.Google Scholar
Kupisch, T
(2003) The DP, a Vulnerable Domain? In N. Müller (Ed.), (In)Vulnerable Domains in Multilingualism (pp. 1–39). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2006) The emergence of article forms and functions in the language acquisition of a German-Italian bilingual child. In C. Lleó (Ed), Interfaces in Multilingualism: Acquisition and Representation (pp. 139–177). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lardiere, D
(1998) Case and tense in the ‘fossilized’ steady state. Second Language Research, 141, 1–26. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2007) Ultimate Attainment in Second Language Acquisition: A Case Study. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Lemke, V
(2008) Der Erwerb der DP. Variation beim frühen Zweitspracherwerb. PhD dissertation University of Mannheim.
Marouani, Z
(2006) Der Erwerb des Deutschen durch arabischsprachige Kinder. Eine Studie zur Nominalflexion. PhD dissertation: University of Heidelberg.
McFadden, T
(2004) The Position of Morphological Case in the Derivation: A Study on the Syntax-Morphology Interface. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
Meisel, J. M
(2009) Second language acquisition in early childhood. Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft, 281, 5–34.Google Scholar
Mills, A
(1986) The Acquisition of Gender. A Study of English and German. Springer, Berlin. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Müller, N
(1994) Gender and number agreement within DP. In J.M. Meisel (Ed.), Bilingual First Language Acquisition: French and German Grammatical Development (pp. 53–88). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2000) Gender and number in acquisition. In B. Unterbeck (Ed.), Gender in Grammar and Cognition: I. Approaches to Gender (pp. 351–399). Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pannemann, M
(2007) DP Acquisition as Structure Unravelling, PhD dissertation, University of Amsterdam.
Paradis, J
2007 Second language acquisition in childhood. In E. Hoff & M. Shatz (Eds.), Blackwell Handbook of Language Development (pp. 387–405). Oxford: Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Paradis, J.
this volume). Individual differences in child English Second Language Acquisition: Comparing child-internal and child-external factors.
Parodi, T., Schwartz, B.D. & Clahsen, H
(2004) On the acquisition of the morphosyntax of German nominals. Linguistics, 421, 669–705. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Penner, Z. & Weissenborn, J
(1996) Strong continuity, parameter setting and the trigger hierarchy: On the acquisition of the DP in Bernese Swiss German and High German. In H. Clahsen (Ed.), Generative Perspectives on Language Acquisition. Empirical Findings, Theoretical Considerations and Crosslinguistic Comparisons (pp. 161–200). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Prévost, P., & White, L
(2000) Missing surface inflection or impairment in second language acquisition? Evidence from tense and agreement. Second Language Research, 161, 103–133. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sauerland, U
(1996) The Late Insertion of German Inflection.Unpublished manuscript, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Schmitz, K
(2006) Indirect objects and dative case in monolingual German and German/Romance language acquisition. In D. Hole, A. Meinunger & W. Abraham (Eds.), Datives and Other Cases: Between argument structure and event structure (pp. 239–270). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schulz, P. & Tracy, R.
in press). Linguistische Sprachstandserhebung — Deutsch als Zweitsprache (LiSe-DaZ). Hogrefe, Göttingen.
Schwartz, B. D
(2003) Child L2 acquisition: Paving the way. In B. Beachley & A. Brown, & F. Conlin (Eds.), BUCLD 27: Proceedings of the 27th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 26–50). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla.Google Scholar
(2004) Why child L2 acquisition? In J. Van Kampen & S. Baauw (Eds.), Proceedings of Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition 2003 (pp. 47–66). Utrecht: LOT Occasional Series.Google Scholar
Tracy, R
(1986) The acquisition of case morphology in German. Linguistics, 241, 47–78. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tracy, R. & Lemke, V
(2010) Young L2 and L1 learners: more alike than different. In M. Watorek, S. Benazzo & M. Hickmann (Eds.), Comparative Perspectives to Language Acquisition: A tribute to Clive Perdue. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Unsworth, S
(2005) Child L2, Adult L2, Child L1: Differences and Similarities — A Study on the Acquisition of Direct Object Scrambling in Dutch. Ph.D.dissertation, University of Utrecht.
(2008a) Age and input in the acquisition of grammatical gender in Dutch. Second Language Research, 241, 365–395. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2008b) Comparing child L2 development with adult L2 development: How to measure L2 proficiency. In E. Gavruseva & B. Haznedar (Eds.), Current Trends in Child Second Language Acquisition (pp. 301–336). Amsterdam: John Benjamins DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wegener, H
(1995) Die Nominalflexion des Deutschen — verstanden als Lerngegenstand. Tübingen: Niemeyer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1998) Eine zweite Sprache lernen. Empirische Untersuchungen zum Zweitspracherwerb. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar
(2000) German gender in children’s second language acquisition. In B. Unterbeck & M. Rissanen (Eds.), Gender in Grammar and Cognition. I: Approaches to Gender (pp. 511–544). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
White, L
(2003) Fossilization in steady state L2 grammars: Persistent problems with inflectional morphology. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 61, 128–141. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2007) Some puzzling features of L2 features. In J. Liceras, H. Zobl & H. Goodluck (Eds.), The Role of Features in Second Language Acquisition (pp. 301–326). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
White, L., Valenzuela, E., Kozlowska-Macregor, M., & Leung, Y. I
(2004) Gender and number agreement in non-native Spanish. Applied Psycholinguistics, 251, 105–133. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zobl, H., & Liceras, J
(1994) Functional categories and acquisition orders. Language Learning, 441, 159–180. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 12 other publications

Chernovaty, L.
2023. Pedagogical grammar as the framework of TEFL research. Part 14. Age and foreign language acquisition: experimental data. Teaching languages at higher institutions :42 ► pp. 154 ff. DOI logo
Geist, Barbara
2017. Wortschatz von Kindern mit Deutsch als Zweitsprache. Frühe Bildung 6:3 ► pp. 124 ff. DOI logo
Hopp, Holger
2013. Grammatical gender in adult L2 acquisition: Relations between lexical and syntactic variability. Second Language Research 29:1 ► pp. 33 ff. DOI logo
Hopp, Holger & Mayra E. León Arriaga
2016. Structural and inherent case in the non-native processing of Spanish: Constraints on inflectional variability. Second Language Research 32:1 ► pp. 75 ff. DOI logo
Kim, Kitaek & Hyunwoo Kim
2022. Sequential bilingual heritage children's L1 attrition in lexical retrieval: Age of acquisition versus language experience. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 25:4 ► pp. 537 ff. DOI logo
Kupisch, Tanja, Miriam Geiss, Natalia Mitrofanova & Marit Westergaard
2022. Structural and phonological cues for gender assignment in monolingual and bilingual children acquiring German. Experiments with real and nonce words. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 7:1 DOI logo
Lemmerth, Natalia & Holger Hopp
2019. Gender processing in simultaneous and successive bilingual children: Cross-linguistic lexical and syntactic influences. Language Acquisition 26:1 ► pp. 21 ff. DOI logo
Meir, Natalia, Joel Walters & Sharon Armon-Lotem
2016. Disentangling SLI and bilingualism using sentence repetition tasks: the impact of L1 and L2 properties. International Journal of Bilingualism 20:4 ► pp. 421 ff. DOI logo
Pearson, Barbara Zurer & Luiz Amaral
2014. Interactions between input factors in bilingual language acquisition. In Input and Experience in Bilingual Development [Trends in Language Acquisition Research, 13], ► pp. 99 ff. DOI logo
Phillips, Colin & Lara Ehrenhofer
2015.  Learning obscure and obvious properties of language . Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 5:4 ► pp. 545 ff. DOI logo
Schulz, Petra & Angela Grimm
2019. The Age Factor Revisited: Timing in Acquisition Interacts With Age of Onset in Bilingual Acquisition. Frontiers in Psychology 9 DOI logo
Tsimpli, Ianthi Maria
2014. Early, late or very late?. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 4:3 ► pp. 283 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 2 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.