Chapter 5
Acquiring social and linguistic competence
A study on morphological variation in Jakarta Indonesian
preschoolers’ speech
The present chapter discusses the acquisition of
social and linguistic constraints by Jakarta Indonesian
preschoolers. We examine the morphological aspects in two Indonesian
varieties, namely Bahasa Indonesia (BI) and Colloquial Jakarta
Indonesian (CJI), focusing on the use of transitivity and
intransitivity marking verbal prefixes. Data in this study come from
two periods of interviews in formal and informal settings with a
six-month interval. Participants in this study are children of
middle-class families (N = 63). We investigate
whether they use BI prefixes and CJI prefixes appropriately in terms
of situations and morphological rules. Findings in this study
indicate that these children acquire the social and grammatical
constraints at the same time in the informal situation.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.An overview of Jakarta’s sociolinguistic situation and its impact
on children
- 3.The observed prefixes and the morphological rules
- 4.Method
- Obtaining children’s speech data
- 5.Children’s stylistic input
- 5.1Obtaining information on linguistic input
- 5.2Stylistic input
- 6.Assessing children’s stylistic profile
- 7.Applying the morphological rules in different situations
- 8.Results and discussion
- Using the observed prefixes, assessing the situation, and
applying the rules
- The use of (+sit+rul) in both situations over time
- The use of (−sit+rul) in both situations over time
- 9.When do children acquire the social and linguistic
constraints?
- 10.Conclusion
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Acknowledgements
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Notes
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Abbreviations
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References
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Appendix