Bilingual first language acquisition : French and German grammatical development / [edited by] Jürgen M. Meisel.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Meisel, Jürgen M.

DUFDE (Research Group)

Series:

Language acquisition & language disorders, 0925-0123 ; v. 7

Language Acquisition and Language Disorders ; 7

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Language acquisition.

Bilingualism in children.

French language--Acquisition.

French language.

German language--Acquisition.

German language.

Grammar, Comparative and general.

Physical Description:

282 p. : ill.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; New York : J. Benjamins, c1994.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The contributions in this volume are based on an analysis of data from bilingual children acquiring French and German simultaneously. The longitudinal studies started at approximately age one year and six months and continued till age six. The papers focus on the development of specific grammatical phenomena; explanations are given within the framework of the Principle and Parameter approach. The study is primarily concerned with the acquisition of so-called 'functional categories' and the consequences of their acquisition for the development of grammar. Specific points dealt with in these papers include: gender, number and case and their internal structure (DP vs NP); inflection and its consequences for agreement marking; and word order phenomena (subject-raising constructions (incl. passives), word order in subordinate clauses). The basic hypothesis underlying this study is that early child grammars consist only of lexical categories and that functional categories are implemented later in the child's grammar. How this happens exactly is the central issue explored in this book.

Contents:

Acquiring German and French in a bilingual setting / Peter Jordens

The DUFDE project / Regina Köppe

The acquisition of gender and number morphology within NP / Caroline Koehn

Gender and number agreement within DP / Natascha Müller

Getting FAT : fitness, agreement, and tense in early grammars / Jürgen M. Meisel

More about INFL-ection and agreement : the acquisiton of clitic pronouns in French / Georg Kaiser

Case assignment and functional categories in bilingual children / Achim Stenzel

NP-movement and subject raising / Regina Köppe

Parameters cannot be reset : evidence from the development of COMP / Natascha Müller.

Notes:

Results of research by members of the research group DUFDE.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN:

90-272-2470-6

1-283-12195-6

9786613121950

90-272-8497-0

OCLC:

721926265