Motion event expression in bilingual first language acquisition
The thesis explores the implications of Talmyâs typology of motion expression (Talmy 1985, 2000a,b) for bilingual first language acquisition of English (satellite-framing) and French (verb-framing), addressing the following question: How does the expression of motion develop in simultaneous bilingual children in comparison to monolinguals? The particular focus of this study is on the role of crosslinguistic interactions and the extent to which their occurrence and directionality are affected by language-specific properties, childrenâs age and the factor of task complexity. The thesis pursues two goals. First, it aims to contribute to the growing understanding of the role of languagespecific factors in the acquisition process (e.g. Allen et al. 2007, Choi and Bowerman 1991, Hickmann et al. 2009a). Secondly, by testing various proposals regarding crosslinguistic interactions (GawlijÌek-Maiwald and Tracy 1996, MuÌller and Hulk 2001, Toribio 2004), it endeavours to shed light on bilingual speech production processes. Oral event descriptions elicited by means of short video clips from bilingual and monolingual children aged 4 to 10 years are analysed and compared across two production tasks of varying semantic
Engemann, Helen
Motion in language ; Language acquisition ; Bilingualism
Motion event expression in bilingual first language acquisition. The thesis explores the implications of Talmyâs typology of motion expression (Talmy 1985, 2000a,b) for bilingual first language acquisition of English (satellite-framing) and French (verb-framing), addressing the following question: How does the expression of motion develop in simultaneous bilingual children in comparison to monolinguals? The particular focus of this study is on the role of crosslinguistic interactions and the extent to which their occurrence and directionality are affected by language-specific properties, childrenâs age and the factor of task complexity. The thesis pursues two goals. First, it aims to contribute to the growing understanding of the role of languagespecific factors in the acquisition process (e.g. Allen et al. 2007, Choi and Bowerman 1991, Hickmann et al. 2009a). Secondly, by testing various proposals regarding crosslinguistic interactions (GawlijÌek-Maiwald and Tracy 1996, MuÌller and Hulk 2001, Toribio 2004), it endeavours to shed light on bilingual speech production processes. Oral event descriptions elicited by means of short video clips from bilingual and monolingual children aged 4 to 10 years are analysed and compared across two production tasks of varying semantic
motion_event expression bilingual first language_acquisition explores_implication talmy typology motion expression talmy bilingual first language_acquisition english satellite framing french verb framing address_follow question expression motion develop simultaneous bilingual_child comparison monolingual particular_focus study role crosslinguistic interaction extent occurrence directionality affect language_specific property child_age factor task complexity pursues goal first aim_contribute grow role factor acquisition_process allen secondly test various proposal regard crosslinguistic interaction endeavour shed_light bilingual speech_production process oral event description elicit mean short video bilingual monolingual_child analyse_compare across production_task vary semantic