Patterns in (bilingual) language acquisition

Koch, Nikolas und Günther, Katharina (2025): Patterns in (bilingual) language acquisition. The role of verbs in low-level generalizations. In: Boas, Hans C. und Höder, Steffen (eds.) : Constructions in Contact 3 : Constructional schemas and patterns in language contact. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. pp. 208-246

Abstract

According to usage-based approaches, constructions become more abstract as language acquisition progresses, resulting in argument structure constructions. Verbs in particular play a crucial role here, especially in low- level generalization in which generalizations emerge around concrete verbs. In bilingual language acquisition, children face the challenge of having to acquire two sets of non-equivalent constructions and might thus show differences in the abstraction process compared to monolinguals. Due to a possible higher cognitive load and reduced vocabulary, one could expect bilingual children to show even stronger low-level generalizations. Targeting caused motion events, the present study investigates the use of verbs in caused-motion constructions in three different age groups (4, 6, and 8 years old) of German–French bilingual children and monolingual control groups. In a first step, the proportion of general-purpose verbs — a small group of semantically neutral verbs, such as do, go, make, etc., that have a semantically privileged status and are therefore used very frequently — in relation to more specific verbs was determined. Results showed that the number of general-purpose verbs decreased with age and was significantly higher for bilinguals than for monolinguals at all ages. In a second step, the variation within the verb slot was examined for each individual subject. Although a high degree of inter-individuality was found here, prototypical verbs were identified for some event types, indicating lower-level generalizations.

• Item Type: Book Section
• Keywords: low-level generalizations ; usage-based approach ; bilingual language acquisition ; caused motion ; German ; French
• Faculties: Languages and Literatures > Department 1 > German Studies > Linguistics
• Subjects: 400 Language > 410 Linguistics; 400 Language > 430 German and related languages; 400 Language > 440 French and related languages
• ISBN: 978-90-272-4457-4
• Place of Publication: Amsterdam
• Language: English