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Part of
Processability and Language Acquisition in the Asia-Pacific Region
Edited by Satomi Kawaguchi, Bruno Di Biase and Yumiko Yamaguchi
[Processability Approaches to Language Acquisition Research & Teaching 9] 2023
► pp. 195–230

Chapter 8
Development of Japanese and English polar questions in bilingual first language acquisition

| Australian National University
| Western Sydney University

This chapter examines the development of polar questions, in English and Japanese in a bilingual child acquiring these two typologically different languages from birth in a one-parent-one-language environment in Australia. The three-year longitudinal data-set was collected from the time Haru, the informant, was one year and eleven months of age. Her polar questions began with the use of rising intonation in single or two-word utterances in both languages. Her development continued in language-specific ways resembling that of L1 development in each language, much in line with the Prominence Hypothesis. As well as supporting this Hypothesis and the universality of PT in a bilingual first language acquisition (BFLA) context the study highlights the importance of the two-word stage in child language development and proposes a Two-word stage for PT’s developmental schedule, intermediate between the lemma stage and the canonical order stage within the BFLA context.

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.English and Japanese polar questions
  • 3.A review of the literature
    • 3.1First language acquisition
    • 3.2L1 developmental path of polar questions
    • 3.3English-Japanese bilingual children’s development
  • 4.The Prominence Hypothesis and the development of polar questions
  • 5.Methodology
    • 5.1Informant and data collection
    • 5.2Haru’s general linguistic milestones
    • 5.3Data analysis
  • 6.Results and discussion
    • 6.1English polar questions
      • 6.1.1Developmental path of English polar questions
      • 6.1.2Applying the Prominence Hypothesis to English polar questions
    • 6.2Japanese polar questions
      • 6.2.1Developmental path of Japanese polar questions
      • 6.2.2Applying the Prominence Hypothesis to Japanese polar questions
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 2 February 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/palart.9.08ita
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