Following a usage-based approach to language acquisition, lexically
specific patterns are considered to be important building blocks for language
productivity and feature heavily both in child-directed speech and in the early
speech of children (Arnon, Inbal & Morten H. Christiansen. 2017. The role of
multiword building blocks in explaining L1-L2 differences. Topics in Cognitive
Science 9(3). 621–636; Tomasello, Michael. 2003. Constructing a language: A usagebased theory of language acquisition. Cambridge: Harvard University Press). In
order to account for patterns, the traceback method has been widely applied in
research on first language acquisition to test the hypothesis that children’s utterances can be accounted for on the basis of a limited inventory of chunks and
partially schematic units (Lieven, Elena, Dorothé Salomo & Michael Tomasello.
2009. Two-year-old children’s production of multiword utterances: A usage-based
analysis. Cognitive Linguistics 20(3). 481–508). In the current study, we applied the
method to code-mixed utterances (n = 1,506) of three German-English bilingual
children between 2 and 4 years of age to investigate individual differences in each
child’s own inventory of patterns in relation to their input settings. It was shown
that units such as I see X as in I see a Kelle ‘I see a trowel’ could be traced back to the
child’s own previous productions. More importantly, we see that each child’s
inventory of constructions draws heavily on multiword chunks that are strongly
dependent on the children’s language input situations.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:92114 |
| Date | 17 June 2024 |
| Creators | Endesfelder Quick, Antje, Lieven, Elena, Backhus, Albert |
| Publisher | Mouton de Gruyter |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion, doc-type:article, info:eu-repo/semantics/article, doc-type:Text |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | 0084-5310, 1612-703X, 10.1515/cog-2020-0036 |
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