Skip to content
Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter Mouton August 4, 2016

Peripheral cross-linguistic interference in the acquisition of accusative clitics by Romanian–Hungarian simultaneous bilinguals

  • Veronica Tomescu and Larisa Avram EMAIL logo
From the journal Probus

Abstract

This paper presents the results of the first study of the acquisition of Accusative clitics in Romanian by Romanian–Hungarian bilingual children. Our data show that the acquisition route is similar to the one in a monolingual setting. An interesting observation which arises from this study is that two structures which are superficially similar in the two languages favour the occurrence of non-target constructions, unavailable in either of the two languages. They occur under bilingual conditions via non-language-specific mechanisms, such as comparison and analogy. This is why their use, age of onset, and end of influence are subject to individual variation. Their analysis reveals that even structures which are the result of non-language-specific mechanisms, when drawing on morpho-syntactic knowledge, can fall within the range of constructions made available by Universal Grammar. The same superficial similarity seems to boost the acquisition of clitics by Romanian–Hungarian bilinguals.

Funding statement: Work on this study was financed by research project PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0959 for Larisa Avram.

Acknowledgements

We thank two anonymous reviewers for their comments on an earlier version of this paper and valuable suggestions for improvement. All the remaining errors are ours.

References

Avram, Larisa & Martine Coene. 2006. Object clitics as Last Resort. Implications for language acquisition. In Sergio Baauw, Jacqueline van Kampen & Manuela Pinto (eds.), The acquisition of Romance languages. Selected papers from the Romance Turn II 2006, 7–26. Utrecht: LOT.Search in Google Scholar

Avram, Larisa & Martine Coene. 2009. Null objects and Accusative clitics in Romanian. Bucharest Working Papers in Linguistics XI(1). 233–252.Search in Google Scholar

Avram, Larisa, Martine Coene & Anca Sevenco. 2015. Theoretical implications of children’s early production of Romanian Accusative clitics. Lingua 161. 48–66.10.1016/j.lingua.2014.03.004Search in Google Scholar

Avram, Larisa, Anca Sevcenco & Ioana Stoicescu. 2013. Clinical markers of specific language impairment and developmental dyslexia in Romanian: The case of Accusative clitics. In Larisa Avram & Anca Sevcenco (eds.), Topics in language acquisition and language learning in a Romanian context, 129–159. Bucharest: Editura Universităţii din Bucureşti.Search in Google Scholar

Bárány, András. 2012. Hungarian conjugations and DOM. In Balázs Surányi & Diána Varga (eds.), Proceedings of the First Central European Conference in Linguistics for Postgraduate Students, 3–15. Budapest: Pázmány Péter Catholic University.Search in Google Scholar

Bialystock, Ellen. 2001. Bilingualism in development. Language, literacy, and cognition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511605963Search in Google Scholar

Chomsky, Noam. 2005. Three factors in language design. Linguistic Inquiry 36(1). 1–22.10.1162/0024389052993655Search in Google Scholar

De Houwer, Annick. 1990. The acquisition of two languages from birth: A case study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511519789Search in Google Scholar

Dobrovie-Sorin, Carmen. 1994. The syntax of Romanian: Comparative studies in Romance. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110886597Search in Google Scholar

É.Kiss, Katalin. 2012. Null pronominal objects in Hungarian. Acta Linguistica Hafniensia: International Journal of Linguistics 44(2). 192–206.10.1080/03740463.2013.779077Search in Google Scholar

Farkas, Donka. 1987. DO pro in Hungarian. In Istvan Kenesei (ed.), Approaches to Hungarian. Volume 2: Theories and analyses, 191–211. Szeged: JATE.Search in Google Scholar

Ferrari, Ida. 2006. Acquisition of object clitics by two Italian/German bilingual children. In Adriana Belletti, Elisa Bennati, Cristiano Chesi, Elisa di Domenico & Ida Ferrari (eds.), Language acquisition and development. Proceedings of GALA2005, 173–183. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Press.Search in Google Scholar

Frâncu, Constantin. 1997. Sintaxa [Syntax]. In Ion Gheţie (coord.), Istoria limbii române literare, 147–174, 347–375. Bucharest: Editura Ştiinţifică şi Enciclopedică.Search in Google Scholar

Gawlitzek-Maiwald, I. & R. Tracy. 1996. Bilingual Bootstrapping. Linguistics 34. 901–936.10.1515/ling.1996.34.5.901Search in Google Scholar

Giurgea, Ion. 2009. Romanian genderless pronouns and parasitic gaps. In Sonia Colina, Antxon Olarrea & Ana Maria Carvalho (eds.), Romance linguistics 2009: Selected papers from the 39th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL) Tucson, Arizona, March 2009, 231–248. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/cilt.315.14giuSearch in Google Scholar

Grandfeldt, Jonas & Suzanne Schlyter. 2004. Cliticization in the acquisition of French as L1 and L2. In Philippe Prévost & Johanne Catherine Paradis (eds.), The acquisition of French in different contexts: Focus on functional categories, 333–370. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/lald.32.15graSearch in Google Scholar

Hulk, Aafke. 1997. The acquisition of object pronouns by a Dutch/French bilingual child. In Antonella Sorace, Caroline Heycock & Richard C. Shillcock (eds.), Proceedings of the GALA’97 Conference on language acquisition, 521–526. HCRC, Edinburgh University.Search in Google Scholar

Hulk, Aafke. 2000. L’acquisition des pronoms clitiques français par un enfant bilingue français- néerlandais. Revue Canadienne de Linguistique 45. 97–117.10.1017/S000841310001762XSearch in Google Scholar

Hulk, Aafke & Elizabeth van der Linden.1996. Language mixing in a French-Dutch bilingual child. In Eric Kellerman, Bert Weltens & Theo Bongaerts (eds.), Eurosla 6. A selection of papers, 87–101. Amsterdam: VU Uitgeverij.10.1075/ttwia.55.08hulSearch in Google Scholar

Hulk, Aafke & Natascha Müller. 2000. Bilingual first language acquisition at the interface between syntax and pragmatics. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 3(3). 227–244.10.1017/S1366728900000353Search in Google Scholar

Kaiser, Georg. 1994. More about INFL-ection and agreement: The acquisition of clitic pronouns in French. In Jürgen Meisel (ed.), Bilingual first language acquisition French and German development, 131–160. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/lald.7.07kaiSearch in Google Scholar

Keresztes, Júlia 2012. Towards an account of object drop. In Balázs Surányi & Diána Varga (eds.), Proceedings of the First Central European Conference in Linguistics for Postgraduate Students, 165–173. Budapest: Pázmány Péter Catholic University.Search in Google Scholar

Larrañaga, Pilar & Pedro Guijarro-Fuentes. 2012. Clitics in L1 bilingual acquisition. First Language 32(1–2). 151–175.10.1177/0142723711403878Search in Google Scholar

Longobardi, Giuseppe. 2006. Reference to individuals, person and the variety of mapping parameters. Ms. University of Trieste.Search in Google Scholar

Lorusso, Paolo. 2015. Auxiliaries and verb classes. A longitudinal analysis of the auxiliary split in L1 Italian. Paper presented at 41st Incontro di Grammatica Generativa, Università per Stranieri di Perugia, 26 February 2015. https://unifi.academia.edu/PaoloLorusso.Search in Google Scholar

Massam, Diane & Yves Roberge. 1989. Recipe context null objects in English. Linguistic Inquiry 20(1). 134–139.Search in Google Scholar

Meisel, Jürgen. 1989. Early differentiation of languages in bilingual children. In K. Hyltenstam & L.K. Obler (eds.), Bilingualism across the lifespan: Aspects of acquisition, maturity and loss, 13–40. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511611780.003Search in Google Scholar

Meisel, Jürgen.1994. Getting FAT: Finiteness, agreement and tense in early grammar. In Jürgen Meisel (ed.), Bilingual first language acquisition: French and German grammatical development, 89–130. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/lald.7.06meiSearch in Google Scholar

Meisel, Jürgen. 2001. The simultaneous acquisition of two first languages: Early differentiation and subsequent development of grammars. In Jasone Cenoz & Fred Genesee (eds.), Trends in bilingual acquisition, 11–41. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/tilar.1.03meiSearch in Google Scholar

Meisel, Jürgen. 2004. The bilingual child. In T.K. Bhatia & W.C.Ritchie (eds.), The handbook of bilingualism, 91–113. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.10.1111/b.9780631227359.2005.00008.xSearch in Google Scholar

Meisel, Jürgen. 2011. First and second language acquisition. Parallels and differences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511862694Search in Google Scholar

Müller, Natascha & Aafke Hulk. 2000. Cross-linguistic influence in bilingual children: Object omissions and Root Infinitives. In S. Catherine Howell, Sarah A. Fish, Thea Keith-Lucas (eds.), Proceedings of the 24th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, 546–557. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla, Press.Search in Google Scholar

Müller, Natascha & Aafke Hulk. 2001. Cross-linguistic influence in bilingual language acquisition: Italian and French as recipient languages. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 4(1). 1–21.10.1017/S1366728901000116Search in Google Scholar

Paradis, Johanne & Fred Genesee. 1996. Syntactic acquisition in bilingual children: Autonomous or interdependent? Studies in Second Language Acquisition 18. 1–25.10.1017/S0272263100014662Search in Google Scholar

Paradis, Johanne Catherine, M. Crago & Fred Genesee. 2005/2006. Domain-general versus domain specific accounts of specific language Impairment: Evidence from bilingual children’s acquisition of object pronouns. Language Acquisition 13. 33–62.10.1207/s15327817la1301_3Search in Google Scholar

Penello, N. 2007. On double clitics in interrogatives in a Northern Italian dialect. Nordlyd 34. 201–217.10.7557/12.95Search in Google Scholar

Pîrvulescu, Mihaela, Ana T. Pérez-Leroux & Yves Roberge. 2012. A bidirectional study of object omissions in French-English bilinguals. In K. Braunmüller, C. Gabriel, & B. Hänel-Faulhaber (eds.) Multilingual individuals and multilingual societies, 171–188. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/hsm.13.12pirSearch in Google Scholar

Reinheimer Rîpeanu, Sanda, Liliane Tasmowksi, Andra Vasilescu, Ion Giurgea & Rodica Zafiu. 2013. Pronouns. In Carmen Dobrovie-Sorin & Ion Giurgea (eds.), A reference grammar of Romanian. Volume 1: The Noun Phrase, 231–307. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.10.1075/la.207.05ripSearch in Google Scholar

Schaeffer, Jeanette. 2000. The acquisition of direct object scrambling and clitic placement. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.10.1075/lald.22Search in Google Scholar

Schlyter, Suzanne, Jonas Granfeldt & Maria Kihlstedt. 2007. French as cL2, 2L1 and L1 in pre-school children. PERLES: Petites études romanes de Lund. Extra series, commentaires & communications 21. 6–43.Search in Google Scholar

Schmitz, Katrin & Natasha Müller. 2008. Strong and clitic pronouns in monolingual and bilingual first language acquisition: Comparing French and Italian. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 11(1). 19–41.10.1017/S1366728907003197Search in Google Scholar

Serratrice, Ludovica. 2013. Cross-linguistic influence in bilingual development. Determinants and mechanisms. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 3(1). 3–25.10.1075/lab.3.1.01serSearch in Google Scholar

Sigurðsson, Halldór Ármann & Joan Maling. 2010. Argument drop and the empty left edge condition (ELEC). In Michael Putnam (ed.), Exploring crash-proof grammars, 59–86. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/lfab.3.04sigSearch in Google Scholar

Sorace, Antonella. 2007. The more the merrier: Facts and beliefs about the bilingual mind. In Sergio Della Sala (ed.), Tall tales about the mind and brain. Separating fact from fiction, 193–203. New York: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198568773.003.0014Search in Google Scholar

Tigău, Alina. 2007. On the nature of Romanian pronominal clitics. Bucharest Working Papers in Linguistics IX(1). 109–123.Search in Google Scholar

Tomescu, Veronica. 2013. The acquisition of directional and locative particles in a Romanian-Hungarian bilingual context. In Larisa Avram, Anca Sevcenco (eds.), Topics in language acquisition and language learning in a Romanian context, 107–128. Bucharest: Editura Universităţii din Bucureşti.Search in Google Scholar

Uriagereka, Juan. 1995. Aspects of the syntax of clitic placement in Western Romance. Linguistic Inquiry 26. 79–123.Search in Google Scholar

Uriagereka, Juan. 2007. Clarifying the notion ‘parameter’. Biolinguistics 1(1). 99–113.10.4324/9781315112510-4Search in Google Scholar

Uşurelu, Camelia. 2011. De la sintaxă la semantică [From syntax to semantics]. Bucharest: Editura Universităţii din Bucureşti.Search in Google Scholar

Varlokosta, Spyridoula, Adriana Belletti, João Costa, Naama Friedmann, Anna Gavarró, Kleanthes K. Grohmann, Maria Teresa Guasti, Laurice Tuller, Maria Lobo, Darinka Anđelković, Núria Argemí, Larisa Avram, Sanne Berends, Valentina Brunetto, Hélène Delage, María-José Ezeizabarrena, Iris Fattal, Ewa Haman, Angeliek van Hout, Kristine Jensen de López, Napoleon Katsos, Lana Kologranic, Nadezda Krstić, Jelena Kuvac Kraljevic, Aneta Miękisz, Michaela Nerantzini, Clara Queraltó, Zeljana Radic, Sílvia Ruiz, Uli Sauerland, Anca Sevcenco, Magdalena Smoczyńska, Eleni Theodorou, Heather van der Lely, Alma Veenstra, John Weston, Maya Yachini, & Kazuko Yatsushiro. 2016. A cross-linguistic study of the acquisition of clitic and pronoun production. Language Acquisition 23(1). 1–26.10.1080/10489223.2015.1028628Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2016-08-04
Published in Print: 2019-09-25

© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 19.4.2024 from https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/probus-2016-0014/html
Scroll to top button