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Sociolinguistic Variation and Language Acquisition across the Lifespan
Edited by Anna Ghimenton, Aurélie Nardy and Jean-Pierre Chevrot
[Studies in Language Variation 26] 2021
► pp. 81–102

Chapter 4
Testing interface and frequency hypotheses

Bilingual children’s acquisition of Spanish subject pronoun expression

ORCID logo | University of New Mexico
The Interface Hypothesis predicts that syntax-discourse interface features are acquired later than features involving the interface between syntax and other components of grammar. The Frequency Hypothesis predicts that frequent grammatical patterns are acquired earlier than infrequent ones. This study tests these hypotheses by examining Spanish subject pronoun expression in interviews with 28 U.S. bilingual children of Mexican-descent. Binary logistic regression analyses demonstrate that the children’s pronoun expression is significantly constrained by switch-reference, a discourse-pragmatic factor, but not tense/mood/aspect, a morphological factor. These results do not support the Interface Hypothesis since the children acquire a discourse-pragmatic constraint before a morphological one. Instead, frequency effects can explain the findings: the more frequent the constraint, the earlier it is acquired.
Keywords: bilingualism, interface hypothesis, frequency effects, bilingual language acquisition, subject pronouns, child language, morphosyntactic variation
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Discourse and morphological constraints on Spanish subject pronoun expression
  • The Interface Hypothesis and the acquisition of subject pronoun expression
  • The Frequency Hypothesis and the acquisition of subject pronoun expression
  • This study: Subject pronoun expression among school-age children in the U.S.
    • Participants
    • Methods
    • Results
  • Discussion
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 16 August 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.26.04shi
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Shin, Naomi & Karen Lynn Miller
2024. Children’s Acquisition of Morphosyntactic Variation: A Reply to Commentaries. Language Learning and Development 20:1 ► pp. 83 ff. DOI logo
Brown, Esther L. & Naomi Shin
2022. Acquisition of cumulative conditioning effects on words: Spanish-speaking children’s [subject pronoun + verb] usage. First Language 42:3 ► pp. 361 ff. DOI logo
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