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Palestinian Arabic dual formation in typically developing heritage speakers of Palestinian Arabic

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Abstract

This study provides preliminary data on Palestinian Arabic and English plural elicitations in Palestinian Arabic heritage-speaking children in the United States. Since dual formation is present in Palestinian Arabic but not English, this kind of investigation could elucidate whether a shift from heritage language (Arabic) to language of environmental dominance (English) affects the ability to access L1 plural formation. An elicited production task was administered to 21 typically developing Palestinian Arabic heritage-speaking children, aged 5;04 to 9;11 years.1 The task was designed to elicit productions of Palestinian Arabic dual and sound and broken plural, and regular and irregular plurals in English. Half the items in each language and category were based on real words and the other half on pseudowords. Parent questionnaires provided background information. Findings revealed systematic effects of language, plural category, and lexicality. Dual production correlated with feminine plural formation in Arabic, and dual appeared to be preferred over masculine and broken plurals. Effects of lexicality across the two languages provided insight into distinct patterns of productivity for plural marking. Although effects of socioeconomic status were not found to be significant, parental education and home exposure to Palestinian Arabic correlated with children’s performance on irregular pluralization. Findings are discussed with a view to informing further studies.

Abstract

This study provides preliminary data on Palestinian Arabic and English plural elicitations in Palestinian Arabic heritage-speaking children in the United States. Since dual formation is present in Palestinian Arabic but not English, this kind of investigation could elucidate whether a shift from heritage language (Arabic) to language of environmental dominance (English) affects the ability to access L1 plural formation. An elicited production task was administered to 21 typically developing Palestinian Arabic heritage-speaking children, aged 5;04 to 9;11 years.1 The task was designed to elicit productions of Palestinian Arabic dual and sound and broken plural, and regular and irregular plurals in English. Half the items in each language and category were based on real words and the other half on pseudowords. Parent questionnaires provided background information. Findings revealed systematic effects of language, plural category, and lexicality. Dual production correlated with feminine plural formation in Arabic, and dual appeared to be preferred over masculine and broken plurals. Effects of lexicality across the two languages provided insight into distinct patterns of productivity for plural marking. Although effects of socioeconomic status were not found to be significant, parental education and home exposure to Palestinian Arabic correlated with children’s performance on irregular pluralization. Findings are discussed with a view to informing further studies.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgments vii
  4. Introduction ix
  5. Part I. Phonetics and phonology
  6. Incomplete phonetic neutralization 3
  7. Diminutive formation in a Libyan dialect with some phonological implications 31
  8. Diminutive and augmentative formation in northern Najdi/Ḥā’ili Arabic 51
  9. Post-lexical strata 75
  10. Part II. Sociolinguistics and pragmatics
  11. Destabilizing Arabic diglossia? 105
  12. Dialect contact in the Tunisian diaspora 135
  13. Speaker-oriented attitude datives as authority indexicals 159
  14. Generic expressions in Tunisian Arabic 181
  15. Part III. Language acquisition
  16. Palestinian Arabic dual formation in typically developing heritage speakers of Palestinian Arabic 207
  17. Interactions between temporal acoustics and indexical information in speech rate perception 235
  18. Index 263
Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics XXXI
This chapter is in the book Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics XXXI
https://doi.org/10.1075/sal.8.09kha

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgments vii
  4. Introduction ix
  5. Part I. Phonetics and phonology
  6. Incomplete phonetic neutralization 3
  7. Diminutive formation in a Libyan dialect with some phonological implications 31
  8. Diminutive and augmentative formation in northern Najdi/Ḥā’ili Arabic 51
  9. Post-lexical strata 75
  10. Part II. Sociolinguistics and pragmatics
  11. Destabilizing Arabic diglossia? 105
  12. Dialect contact in the Tunisian diaspora 135
  13. Speaker-oriented attitude datives as authority indexicals 159
  14. Generic expressions in Tunisian Arabic 181
  15. Part III. Language acquisition
  16. Palestinian Arabic dual formation in typically developing heritage speakers of Palestinian Arabic 207
  17. Interactions between temporal acoustics and indexical information in speech rate perception 235
  18. Index 263
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