Acquiring the Dutch Plural in a Bilingual Setting

Investigating the Effects of Language Dominance, Overlap, and Variability

Bibliographic Data

ID7903772
AuthorsDarlene Keydeniers (0000-0001-9383-3041, University of Amsterdam, corresponding author), Suzanne Aalberse (0000-0001-7654-7318, University of Amsterdam), Suzanne P Aalberse, Sible Andringa (0000-0002-0182-6977, University of Amsterdam), Folkert Kuiken (0000-0002-1667-2501, University of Amsterdam)
Year2023
Volume8
Issue3
Pages156
Publication date2023-06-26
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLanguages (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2226-471X • E-ISSN: 2226-471X
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/languages8030156
OpenAlexW4382461671
LanguageEN
References cited43

In this study, we aimed to deepen the understanding of the circumstances under which crosslinguistic influence occurs, by focusing on the acquisition of the Dutch plural by two- and three-year old children who attend bilingual Dutch-English daycare. In doing so, we explored the roles of variability, overlap and language dominance as these are all factors that have been linked to the occurrence of crosslinguistic influence in studies on bilingual language acquisition and language contact. We investigated the expectation that young children who are exposed to English might show a stronger preference for -s pluralization in Dutch, because of the partial overlap in Dutch and English pluralization. In total, a group of 95 children that grew up with only Dutch and/or English at home and attended bilingual (Dutch-English) daycare (51 females, 44 males, mean age = 3;6 years) participated in an elicited production task. Results showed that no clear-cut evidence for unidirectional crosslinguistic influence from English to Dutch could be found in the form of -s overgeneralizations. However, we did find evidence for the role of variability in this domain of language, since children made more overgeneralizations when rhyme and sonorancy contradicted. Also, English exposure seemed to facilitate correct production of the -s affix, and children who overgeneralized the -s affix were mostly children that were exposed to the English language at home, suggesting that language dominance does play a role in preference for the -s affix

Affix · Biology · Developmental psychology · Dominance (genetics · Linguistics · Plural · Preference · Language Development and Disorders · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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