Article published in:
Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism
Vol. 8:3 (2018) ► pp. 393–409

Constructively combining languages

The use of code-mixing in German-English bilingual child language acquisition

| University of Leipzig
| University of Manchester
| Tilburg University
| Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology | Duke University
Language development in bilingual children is often related to differing levels of proficiency. Objective measurements of bilingual development include for example mean length of utterance (MLU). MLU is almost always calculated for each language context (including both monolingual and code-mixed utterances). In the current study, we analyzed the MLUs of three German-English bilingual children, aged 2;3–3;11 separately for the monolingual and code-mixed utterances. Our results showed that language preference was reflected in MLU values: the more children spoke in one language the higher the MLU was in that language. However, it was the mixed utterances that had the highest MLU for all three children. We support the results with a construction type analysis and suggest a potential usage-based explanation for these results based on individual differences in each child’s developmental inventory of words and constructions.
Keywords: code-mixing, German – English, bilingual child, language proficiency, MLU
Published online: 20 March 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.17008.qui
References

References

Backus, A. M.
(2015) A usage-based approach to codeswitching: The need for reconciling structure and function. Code-switching Between Structural and Sociolinguistic Perspectives, 19–37. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Bannard, C. and Matthews, D.
(2008) Stored word sequences in language learning: the effect of children’s repetition of four-word combinations. Psychological Science, 19, 241–248. Crossref.Google Scholar
Birdsong, D.
(2016) Dominance in bilingualism: Foundations of measurement, with insights from the study of handedness. In Silva-Corvalán, C. and Jeanine Treffers-Daller (Eds), Language Dominance in Bilinguals. Issues of Measurement and Operationalization. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bernardini, P., & Schlyter, S.
(2004) Growing syntactic structure and code-mixing in the weaker language: The Ivy Hypothesis. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 7, 49–69. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Brown, R.
(1973) A first language: The early stages. London: George Allen & Unwin. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bybee, J.
(2010) Language, Usage and Cognition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cantone, Katja F. & Natascha Müller
2008 Un nase or una nase? What gender marking within switched DPs reveals about the architecture of the bilingual language faculty. Lingua, 118(6). 810–826.Google Scholar
Cantone, K. N., Kupisch, T., Müller, K., & Schmitz, K.
(2008) Rethinking language dominance. Linguistische Berichte 215, 129–160.Google Scholar
Comeau, L., Genesee, F., & Lapaquette, L.
(2003) The Modeling Hypothesis and child bilingual code-mixing. The International Journal of Bilingualism, 7(2), 113–126. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
De Houwer, A., Bornstein, M. H. & Putnick, D. L.
(2014) A bilingual-monolingual comparison of young children’s vocabulary size: Evidence from comprehension and production. Applied Psycholinguistics, 35, 1189–1211. Crossref).Google Scholar
Döpke, S.
(1998) Competing language structures: The acquisition of verb placement by bilingual German-English children. Journal of Child Language, 25, 555–584. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, N. C., Römer, U. & O’Donnell, M. B.
(2016) Usage-based Approaches to Language Acquisition and Processing: Cognitive and Corpus Investigations of Construction Grammar. Language Learning Monograph Series. Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Gawlitzek-Maiwald, I. & Tracy, R.
(1996) Bilingual bootstrapping. Linguistics, 34, 901–926. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Genesee, F., & Nicoladis, E.
(2006) Bilingual acquisition. In E. Hoff & M. Shatz (Eds.), Handbook of language development (pp. 324–342). Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Jorschick, L.; Quick, Endesfelder A., Gläßer, D., Lieven, E., & Tomasello, M.
(2011) German-English speaking children’s mixed NPs with ‘correct’ gender. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 14(2): 173–183. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kupisch, T.
(2008) Dominance, mixing, and cross-linguistic influence: On their relation in bilingual development. In, P. Guijarro-Fuentes, P. Larrañaga & J. Clibbens (Eds.), First language acquisition of morphology and syntax: Perspectives across languages and learners (pp. 209–234). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Langacker, R. W.
(1987) Foundations of Cognitive Grammar, vol. 1. Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Li, W.
(2000) The bilingualism reader. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Liceras, J. M., Fernández Fuertes, R., Perales, S., Pérez-Tattam, R. & Spradlin, K. T.
(2008) Gender and gender agreement in bilingual native and non-native grammars: A view from child and adult functional-lexical mixings. Lingua, 118, 827–851. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Lieven, E., Salomo, D., & Tomasello, M.
(2009) Two-year-old children’s production of multiword utterances: A usage-based analysis. Cognitive Linguistics, 20(3), 481–507. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Lieven, E., Pine, J., Baldwin, G.
(1997) Lexically-based learning and early grammatical development. Journal of Child Language, 24, 187–219. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Luk, G. & Bialystok, E.
(2013) Bilingualism is not a categorical variable: Interaction between proficiency and usage. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 25, 605–621. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
MacWhinney, B.
(2000) The CHILDES Project: Tools for analyzing talk. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
McLaughlin, B.
(1984) Second Language Acquisition in Childhood. Hillsdale, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Müller, N., L. Arnaus Gil, N. Eichler, J. Geveler, M. Hager, V. Jansen, M. Patuto, V. Repetto & A. Schmeißer
(2015) Code-Switching: Spanisch, Italienisch, Französisch. Eine Einführung. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar
Paradis, J. & Genesee, F.
(1996) Syntactic acquisition in bilingual children: autonomous or interdependent? Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 18, 1–15. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Pearson, B., Fernández, S., Lewedeg, V., & Oller, D.
(1997) The relation of input factors to lexical learning by bilingual infants. Applied Psycholinguistics, 18, 41–58. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Pfaff, C. W.
(1979) Constraints on language mixing: Intrasentential codeswitching and borrowing in Spanish/English. Language, 55, 219–318. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Quick, Endesfelder A., Lieven, E., Carpenter, M., & Tomasello, M.
first view). Identifying partially schematic units in the code-mixing of an English and German speaking child. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism.
Quick, Endesfelder A., Lieven, E., & Tomasello, M.
(2016) Mixed NPs in German-English and German-Russian bilingual children. In Robinson, Justyna A. and Monika Reif (Eds), Cognitive perspectives on bilingualism. Trends in Applied Linguistics (TAL). Berlin: de Gruyter.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Silva-Corvalán, C. & Treffers-Daller, J.
Eds. (2016) Language Dominance in Bilingual. Issues of Measurement and Operationalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Schlyter, S.
(1994) Early morphology in Swedish as the weaker language in French-Swedish bilingual children. Scandinavian Working Papers on Bilingualism, 9, 67–86.Google Scholar
Schmeißer, A., Hager, M., Arnaus Gil, L., Jansen, V., Geveler, J., Eichler, N., Patuto, M., & Müller, N.
(2016) Related but different: The two concepts of language dominance and language proficiency. In Silva-Corvalán, C. and Jeanine Treffers-Daller (Eds), Language Dominance in Bilinguals. Issues of Measurement and Operationalization. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Schmid, Hans-Jörg
ed. (2017) Entrenchment and the psychology of language learning: how we reorganize and adapt linguistic knowledge. Boston: APA and Walter de Gruyter.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Tomasello, M.
(2003) Constructing a language: A usage-based theory of language acquisition. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Venables, W. N. & Ripley, B. D.
(2002) Modern applied statistics with S, 4th ed. New York: Springer. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Wasserscheidt, P.
(2016): Construction Grammar and Code-Mixing. In Robinson, Justyna A. and Monika Reif (Eds), Cognitive perspectives on bilingualism. Trends in Applied Linguistics (TAL). Berlin: de Gruyter.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Yip, V. and S. Matthews
2006 Assessing language dominance in bilingual acquisition: a case for mean length utterance differentials. Language Assessment Quarterly. 3(2), 97–116 CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by other publications

Gaskins, Dorota, Maria Frick, Elina Palola & Antje Endesfelder Quick
2019. Towards a usage-based model of early code-switching: Evidence from three language pairs. Applied Linguistics Review 0:0 Crossref logo
Quick, Antje Endesfelder, Dorota Gaskins, Oksana Bailleul, Maria Frick & Elina Palola
2020. A gateway to complexity: A cross-linguistic comparison of child bilingual speech. International Journal of Bilingualism ► pp. 136700692095672 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 05 january 2021. 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.