Issues in bilingual acquisition: a case study

Champdoizeau, Christine (2006) Issues in bilingual acquisition: a case study. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

This thesis examines issues related to the relationship between the two languages comprised in a bilingual child's linguistic competence. The data investigated come from a longitudinal case study of an English-French bilingual child (2;00.04 to 4;02.25). The first topic under investigation relates to the reasons behind code switching as well as the constraints on the manifestations of this phenomenon. These constraints result in morphosyntactic combinations that can or cannot occur in code-switched utterances. The data are also analyzed from the perspective of the acoustic manifestation of stress in each language. The results of this acoustic investigation suggest that the child has two separate stress systems and that she has mastered the main phonetic cues related to the manifestation of stress in each language. Overall, this study supports claims in the current literature that bilingual speakers do indeed have separate grammars in their linguistic competence.

Item Type: Thesis (Masters)
URI: http://research.library.mun.ca/id/eprint/10282
Item ID: 10282
Additional Information: Bibliography: leaves 86-90.
Department(s): Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of > Linguistics
Date: 2006
Date Type: Submission
Library of Congress Subject Heading: Bilingualism in children; Code switching (Linguistics); Language acquisition.

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