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Chapter 2. Monolingual and bilingual child language acquisition and language change

Abstract

This chapter reviews research on children’s monolingual and bilingual acquisition of linguistic variation to consider children’s role in language change. Many patterns of variation are learned early and veridically, but some are acquired late and may be more susceptible to change. Further, children sometimes regularize variable input and may create novel patterns when exposed to different dialects or languages, which suggests that contact settings can serve as breeding grounds for language change. The chapter thus turns to the topic of childhood bilingualism and reviews research on child heritage speakers, whose divergences from their input sometimes persist into adulthood. The chapter culminates by considering the implications of the research reviewed for socially informed models of language change and historical sociolinguistics.

Abstract

This chapter reviews research on children’s monolingual and bilingual acquisition of linguistic variation to consider children’s role in language change. Many patterns of variation are learned early and veridically, but some are acquired late and may be more susceptible to change. Further, children sometimes regularize variable input and may create novel patterns when exposed to different dialects or languages, which suggests that contact settings can serve as breeding grounds for language change. The chapter thus turns to the topic of childhood bilingualism and reviews research on child heritage speakers, whose divergences from their input sometimes persist into adulthood. The chapter culminates by considering the implications of the research reviewed for socially informed models of language change and historical sociolinguistics.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents vii
  3. Acknowledgements ix
  4. Part I. Introduction
  5. Chapter 1. Language acquisition across the lifespan in historical sociolinguistics 2
  6. Part II. Perspectives on acquisition and change
  7. Chapter 2. Monolingual and bilingual child language acquisition and language change 44
  8. Chapter 3. The second language acquisition of variation in adulthood and language change 64
  9. Chapter 4. The dynamics of lifelong acquisition in dialect contact and change 84
  10. Chapter 5. Multilingual acquisition across the lifespan as a sociohistorical trigger for language change 104
  11. Chapter 6. Language acquisition across the lifespan and the emergence of new varieties 127
  12. Part III. Case studies
  13. Chapter 7. Tracing the emergence of the voseo/tuteo semantic split in Río de la Plata second person subjunctives 150
  14. Chapter 8. The influences of adult and child speakers in the emergence of Light Warlpiri, an Australian mixed language 179
  15. Chapter 9. Child and adolescent transmission and incrementation in acquisition in historical sociophonetic data from English in Missouri, 1880–2000 203
  16. Chapter 10. Language dominance across the lifespan in Wisconsin German and English varieties 234
  17. Chapter 11. The contact origin(s) of ‘hand’ and ‘foot’ > ‘limb’ in Antioquian Spanish 264
  18. Chapter 12. Adult L2 acquisition of for- complementation in Chinese Pidgin English and Hong Kong English 294
  19. Part IV. Future directions
  20. Chapter 13. Towards an acquisitionally informed historical sociolinguistics 318
  21. Language index 327
  22. Subject index 331
Lifespan Acquisition and Language Change
This chapter is in the book Lifespan Acquisition and Language Change
https://doi.org/10.1075/ahs.14.02shi

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents vii
  3. Acknowledgements ix
  4. Part I. Introduction
  5. Chapter 1. Language acquisition across the lifespan in historical sociolinguistics 2
  6. Part II. Perspectives on acquisition and change
  7. Chapter 2. Monolingual and bilingual child language acquisition and language change 44
  8. Chapter 3. The second language acquisition of variation in adulthood and language change 64
  9. Chapter 4. The dynamics of lifelong acquisition in dialect contact and change 84
  10. Chapter 5. Multilingual acquisition across the lifespan as a sociohistorical trigger for language change 104
  11. Chapter 6. Language acquisition across the lifespan and the emergence of new varieties 127
  12. Part III. Case studies
  13. Chapter 7. Tracing the emergence of the voseo/tuteo semantic split in Río de la Plata second person subjunctives 150
  14. Chapter 8. The influences of adult and child speakers in the emergence of Light Warlpiri, an Australian mixed language 179
  15. Chapter 9. Child and adolescent transmission and incrementation in acquisition in historical sociophonetic data from English in Missouri, 1880–2000 203
  16. Chapter 10. Language dominance across the lifespan in Wisconsin German and English varieties 234
  17. Chapter 11. The contact origin(s) of ‘hand’ and ‘foot’ > ‘limb’ in Antioquian Spanish 264
  18. Chapter 12. Adult L2 acquisition of for- complementation in Chinese Pidgin English and Hong Kong English 294
  19. Part IV. Future directions
  20. Chapter 13. Towards an acquisitionally informed historical sociolinguistics 318
  21. Language index 327
  22. Subject index 331
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