Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-22dnz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T03:54:18.268Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Language mixing in young bilinguals*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Wendy E. Redlinger  and
Tschang-Zin Park
Wendy E. Redlinger
Affiliation:
Universität Bern
Tschang-Zin Park
Affiliation:
Universität Bern
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The speech of four two-year-old children growing up bilingually in a German-speaking community was studied for periods varying between five and nine months. An analysis of their language mixing revealed an initially higher rate of mixing which diminished with a growth in language development as measured in MLU. The data suggest that the children were at various stages in a gradual process of language differentiation thus providing support for the one-system theory of bilingual acquisition. An examination of the distribution of lexical substitutions by part of speech revealed that nouns were most frequently substituted by all children; however, more function words were substituted than content words overall.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , June 1980 , pp. 337 - 352
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

[*]

Address for correspondence: Dr W. E. Redlinger, L. Miranda & Assoc., Inc., 4340 East-West Hwy., Suite 906, Bethesda, Maryland 20014, U.S.A.

References

REFERENCES

Bergman, C. R. (1976). Interference vs. independent development in infant bilingualism. In Keller, G. (ed.), Bilingualism in the bicentennial and beyond. New York: Bilingual Press/Editorial Bilingiüe.Google Scholar
Brown, R. (1973). A first language: the early stages. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Imedadze, N. V. (1967). On the psychological nature of child speech formation under condition of exposure to two languages. IJPsychol 2. 129–32.Google Scholar
Leopold, W. (1970). Speech development of a bilingual child. Vols. I–IV. New York: AMS Press.Google Scholar
Lindholm, K. J. & Padilla, A. M. (1978). Language mixing in bilingual children. JChLang 5. 327–36.Google Scholar
Oksaar, E. (1976 a). Code switching as an interactional strategy for developing bilingual competence. In Von Raffler Engel, W. (ed.), Child language–1975 (Special issue of Word 27. Nos. 1–3).Google Scholar
Oksaar, E. (1976 b). Implications of language contact for bilingual language acquisition. In McCormack, W. & Wurm, S. (eds), Language and man: anthropological issues. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Padilla, A. M. & Liebman, E. (1975). Language acquisition in the bilingual child. The Bilingual Review/La Revista Bilingüe 2. 34–55.Google Scholar
Park, T. Z. (in press). The development of syntax in the child with special reference to German. Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft.Google Scholar
Swain, M. K. (1974). Child bilingual language learning and linguistic interdependence. In Carey, S. (ed.), Bilingualism, biculturalism and education. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press.Google Scholar
Swain, M. K. (1977). Bilingualism, monolingualism and code acquisition. In Mackey, W. & Andersson, T. (eds), Bilingualism in early childhood. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Swain, M. K. & Wesche, M. (1975). Linguistic interaction: case study of a bilingual child. Language Sciences 37. 17–22.Google Scholar
Volterra, V. & Taeschner, T. (1978). The acquisition and development of language by bilingual children. JChLang 5. 311–26.Google Scholar