In-Between Languages: Language Shift/Maintenance in Childhood Bilingualism

This paper examines structural consequences of intensive language contact on simultaneous L1 and L2 child language development in an L2-dominant environment. Based on the assumption that structural processes in language contact are operating at and determined by abstract complex lexical structure, various structural configurations in bilingual speech (e.g., codeswitching, convergence, and a Composite Matrix Language) are explained in terms of three levels of abstract lexical structure: the lexical-conceptual structure, predicate-argument structure, and morphological realization patterns. Empirical evidence from Hungarian/English bilingual speech demonstrates that as a result of a turnover in the Matrix Language abstract lexical structure can be “split” and “recombined” in such a way that surface structure is projected by an underlying grammatical system which is a composite. Prevalent changes and patterns of linguistic structure are interpreted in relation to ongoing language shift to L2, or L1 maintenance/attrition.

[1]  Rod Ellis,et al.  第二语言习得概论 = Understanding second language acquisition , 1985 .

[2]  Mary E. Hughes,et al.  Boston University Conference on Language Development , 1979 .

[3]  Mark Aronoff,et al.  A Decade of Morphology and Word Formation , 1983 .

[4]  Herbert Seliger.  Bilingualism Across the Lifespan: Deterioration and creativity in childhood bilingualism , 1989 .

[5]  Edward E. Smith,et al.  An Invitation to cognitive science , 1997 .

[6]  M. Clyne.  Linguistic and Sociolinguistic Aspects of Language Contact, Maintenance and Loss: Towards a Multifacet Theory , 1992 .

[7]  J. Milroy,et al.  Social network and social class: Toward an integrated sociolinguistic model , 1992, Language in Society.

[8]  H. Giles,et al.  Ethnolinguistic identity theory: a social psychological approach to language maintenance , 1987 .

[9]  Robert M. Vago,et al.  First language attrition: The study of first language attrition: an overview , 1991 .

[10]  Heinz Kuhberg.  Longitudinal L2-attrition versus L2-acquisition, in three Turkish children- empirical findings , 1992 .

[11]  M. Vihman.  Language differentiation by the bilingual infant , 1985, Journal of Child Language.

[12]  W. Redlinger,et al.  Language mixing in young bilinguals , 1980, Journal of Child Language.

[13]  Richard V. Teschner,et al.  Bilingualism in the Bicentennial and Beyond , 1976 .

[14]  Annick de Houwer,et al.  The Acquisition of Two Languages from Birth: A Case Study: List of tables , 1990 .

[15]  Sjaak Kroon,et al.  Maintenance and loss of minority languages , 1992 .

[16]  Robert M. Vago,et al.  First language attrition: Frontmatter , 1991 .

[17]  W. Levelt.  Accessing words in speech production: Stages, processes and representations , 1992, Cognition.

[18]  Richard A. Shweder,et al.  Culture theory : essays on mind, self, and emotion , 1986 .

[19]  M. Garrett.  Processes in language production , 1988 .

[20]  Susan Gal.  Investigating obsolescence: Lexical innovation and loss: The use and value of restricted Hungarian , 1989 .

[21]  Li Wei.  Three Generations, Two Languages, One Family: Language Choice and Language Shift in a Chinese Community in Britain , 1994 .

[22]  Janice L. Jake,et al.  Matching lemmas in a bilingual language competence and production model: evidence from intrasentential code switching , 1995 .

[23]  Jürgen M. Meisel,et al.  Bilingualism Across the Lifespan: Early differentiation of languages in bilingual children , 1989 .

[24]  Kenneth Hyltenstam,et al.  Progression & regression in language : sociocultural, neuropsychological, & linguistic perspectives , 1994 .

[25]  M. Clyne.  Typology and Grammatical Convergence among Related Languages in Contact , 1980 .

[26]  James R. Dow,et al.  Language and ethnicity , 1991 .

[27]  J. Edwards.  Language, society, and identity , 1985 .

[28]  François Grosjean,et al.  The bilingual as a competent but specific speaker‐hearer , 1985 .

[29]  Hugo Baetens Beardsmore.  Bilingualism: Basic Principles , 1982 .

[30]  Lesley Milroy,et al.  Language and social networks , 1980 .

[31]  Suzanne Schlyter.  Progression & regression in language: The weaker language in bilingual Swedish-French children , 1993 .

[32]  Lyle Campbell,et al.  Investigating obsolescence: The structural consequences of language death , 1989 .

[33]  Paula Menyuk,et al.  The Acquisition and Development of Language , 1971 .

[34]  Richard D. Lambert,et al.  The Loss of language skills , 1982 .

[35]  E. Lanza.  Can bilingual two-year-olds code-switch? , 1992, Journal of Child Language.

[36]  W. Levelt,et al.  Speaking: From Intention to Articulation , 1990 .

[37]  F. Newmeyer.  Linguistics: The Cambridge Survey , 1989 .

[38]  Nancy C. Dorian,et al.  Investigating Obsolescence: Studies in Language Contraction and Death , 1990 .

[39]  Stephen Pit Corder,et al.  Papers in applied linguistics , 1975 .

[40]  Evelyn P. Altenberg,et al.  First language attrition: Compensatory strategies of child first language attrition , 1991 .

[41]  K. Bot,et al.  First language attrition: Recapitulation, regression, and language loss , 1991 .

[42]  Linguistic Lag as an Ethnic Marker , 1980 .

[43]  S. Gal,et al.  Language shift: Social determinants of linguistic change in bilingual Austria , 1979 .

[44]  Howard Giles,et al.  Language, ethnicity, and intergroup relations , 1980 .

[45]  W. Lambert.  Culture and Language as Factors in Learning and Education. , 1973 .

[46]  Carol Myers-Scotton.  Compromise structural strategies in codeswitching , 1999 .

[47]  Mark Aronoff,et al.  First language attrition: Morphological disintegration and reconstruction in first language attrition , 1991 .

[48]  Natela Imedadze.  On the Psychological Nature of Child Speech Formation Under Condition of Exposure to Two Languages , 1967 .

[49]  Kees de Bot,et al.  Language attrition in progress , 1987 .

[50]  J. Gleason,et al.  The study of language loss: Models and hypotheses for an emerging discipline , 1986, Applied Psycholinguistics.

[51]  Susanne Döpke.  A bilingual child's struggle to comply with the ‘one parent‐one language’ rule , 1992 .

[52]  Carol Myers-Scotton,et al.  Codeswitching and Compromise Strategies: Implications for Lexical Structure , 1997 .

[53]  Kathryn J. Lindholm,et al.  Language mixing in bilingual children , 1978, Journal of Child Language.

[54]  Carolyn G. Madden,et al.  It Take Two: Contrasting Tasks and Contrasting Structures* , 1982 .

[55]  Carol Myers-Scotton,et al.  Duelling Languages: Grammatical Structure in Codeswitching , 1993 .

[56]  Virginia Volterra,et al.  The acquisition and development of language by bilingual children , 1978, Journal of Child Language.

[57]  Nessa Wolfson,et al.  Language of Inequality , 1985 .

[58]  Miklós Kontra.  HUNGARIAN-AMERICAN BILINGUALISM: A BIBLIOGRAPHIC ESSAY , 1985 .

[59]  Herbert W. Seliger.  First language attrition: Language attrition, reduced redundancy, and creativity , 1991 .

[60]  Johanne Paradis,et al.  Syntactic Acquisition in Bilingual Children , 1996, Studies in Second Language Acquisition.

[61]  Roy C. Major.  Progression & regression in language: Sociolinguistic factors in loss and acquisition of phonology , 1994 .

[62]  E. Lanza.  Language mixing in infant bilingualism : a sociolinguistic perspective , 1997 .