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Multi-word combinations and the emergence of differentiated ordering patterns in early trilingual development*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2009

SIMONA MONTANARI
SIMONA MONTANARI*
Affiliation:
California State University, Los Angeles
*
Address for correspondence: Deptartment of Child and Family Studies, California State University, Los Angeles, CA 90032, USAsmontan2@calstatela.edu
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Abstract

This study examines word order differentiation in early trilingual development through an analysis of the combinations produced by a Tagalog–Spanish–English trilingual child with an MLU of less than 1.5. Same- and mixed-language combinations were tracked down from diary data and weekly recordings to assess (i) whether word order significantly varied cross-linguistically, and (ii) whether mixed utterances originated from vocabulary gaps rather than from an undifferentiated syntax. The results indicate that (a) argument/predicate sequences were differentially ordered depending on their language and following input-dependent preferences, (b) mixed utterances were generally caused by vocabulary gaps, and (c) they displayed the same order as those single-language combinations produced in the same language context. These findings suggest that evidence for early word order differentiation can be found before the appearance of inflectional morphology and even when three – rather than two – languages are being acquired, indicating that trilingual exposure does not slow down the process of differentiation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 12 , Issue 4 , October 2009 , pp. 503 - 519
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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Footnotes

*

I am very grateful to Kathryn and her family who not only allowed me to enter into their private lives and thus undertake this investigation but they also helped with the data collection and transcription. I also thank the members of my dissertation committee, Elaine Andersen, Dany Bird, Jo Ann Farver, Toby Mintz, and especially Carmen Silva-Corvalán, for their helpful comments and suggestions on earlier drafts of this paper. Thanks are also due to the three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.

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