Chapter 3. Acquisition of morpho-syntactic features in a bilingual Italian child
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Laura D’Aurizio
Abstract
The present study investigates the interaction of gender with (declension) class in the acquisition data of one bilingual child (from two to five years old) who develops Italian as a weak language in combination with German in Germany. As reported in the literature, the Italian child acquires gender with ease, reflected in the nearly exceptionless target-like gender marking on determiners. Of the two possible errors, omission and commission, the Italian child vastly omits determiners. Nouns are inflected according to (declension) classes in adult Italian, most of which correspond to one gender. If the gender feature can be derived by class, as proposed by Lowenstamm (2007) for adult French, a different and integrated approach to gender acquisition is possible.
Abstract
The present study investigates the interaction of gender with (declension) class in the acquisition data of one bilingual child (from two to five years old) who develops Italian as a weak language in combination with German in Germany. As reported in the literature, the Italian child acquires gender with ease, reflected in the nearly exceptionless target-like gender marking on determiners. Of the two possible errors, omission and commission, the Italian child vastly omits determiners. Nouns are inflected according to (declension) classes in adult Italian, most of which correspond to one gender. If the gender feature can be derived by class, as proposed by Lowenstamm (2007) for adult French, a different and integrated approach to gender acquisition is possible.
Chapters in this book
- 日本言語政策学会 / Japan Association for Language Policy. 言語政策 / Language Policy 10. 2014 i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Chapter 1. Introduction 1
-
Theory in language acquisition research
- Chapter 2. Linguistic approaches to language acquisition 16
-
Gender in bilingual and heritage language acquisition
- Chapter 3. Acquisition of morpho-syntactic features in a bilingual Italian child 54
- Chapter 4. Gender assignment in German as a heritage language in an English-speaking context 88
-
Input and exposure in the classroom
- Chapter 5. Acquisition of 3 pl verb markings by (very) advanced FSL learners and bilingual Francophone students 118
- Chapter 6. L2 intonation perception in learners of Spanish 144
-
Evidence in controlled first exposure language learning
- Chapter 7. Isolated and combined effects of models and corrective feedback in the acquisition of the Turkish locative morpheme 162
- Chapter 8. First exposure to Russian word forms by adult English speakers 191
-
Input and evidence in the acquisition of syntactic structure
- Chapter 9. Speech modifications and the Processability Theory hierarchy 226
- Chapter 10. Varieties of DP recursion 245
- Proper name index 267
- Subject index 271
Chapters in this book
- 日本言語政策学会 / Japan Association for Language Policy. 言語政策 / Language Policy 10. 2014 i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Chapter 1. Introduction 1
-
Theory in language acquisition research
- Chapter 2. Linguistic approaches to language acquisition 16
-
Gender in bilingual and heritage language acquisition
- Chapter 3. Acquisition of morpho-syntactic features in a bilingual Italian child 54
- Chapter 4. Gender assignment in German as a heritage language in an English-speaking context 88
-
Input and exposure in the classroom
- Chapter 5. Acquisition of 3 pl verb markings by (very) advanced FSL learners and bilingual Francophone students 118
- Chapter 6. L2 intonation perception in learners of Spanish 144
-
Evidence in controlled first exposure language learning
- Chapter 7. Isolated and combined effects of models and corrective feedback in the acquisition of the Turkish locative morpheme 162
- Chapter 8. First exposure to Russian word forms by adult English speakers 191
-
Input and evidence in the acquisition of syntactic structure
- Chapter 9. Speech modifications and the Processability Theory hierarchy 226
- Chapter 10. Varieties of DP recursion 245
- Proper name index 267
- Subject index 271
