The acquisition of languages by children using two languages is a matter of debate as many factors contribute to the success of this type of acquisition. We focus on how the competence of dual-language children changes in their two languages as a function of length of exposure and establish whether there are reciprocal influences during language development. We examined the comprehension of subject and object relative clauses in a group of 6-year-old (younger) and 8-year-old (older) Mandarin–Italian dual-language children. After 3 years of regular and intensive exposure to Italian, the younger group reached the same level of competence in the comprehension of relative clauses in their two languages, and after 5 years of exposure to Italian, the older group had a better comprehension of relative clauses in Italian than in Mandarin. Acquiring two languages leads to bidirectional influence, beyond a reciprocal support. Finally, some penalty may be observed in the acquisition of subject head-final relative clauses, which is not evident in that of subject head-initial relative clauses.

Hu, S., Costa, F., Guasti, M. (2020). Mandarin-Italian dual-language children’s comprehension of head-final and head-initial relative clauses. FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY, 11 [10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01379].

Mandarin-Italian dual-language children’s comprehension of head-final and head-initial relative clauses

Costa, F;Guasti, MT
2020

Abstract

The acquisition of languages by children using two languages is a matter of debate as many factors contribute to the success of this type of acquisition. We focus on how the competence of dual-language children changes in their two languages as a function of length of exposure and establish whether there are reciprocal influences during language development. We examined the comprehension of subject and object relative clauses in a group of 6-year-old (younger) and 8-year-old (older) Mandarin–Italian dual-language children. After 3 years of regular and intensive exposure to Italian, the younger group reached the same level of competence in the comprehension of relative clauses in their two languages, and after 5 years of exposure to Italian, the older group had a better comprehension of relative clauses in Italian than in Mandarin. Acquiring two languages leads to bidirectional influence, beyond a reciprocal support. Finally, some penalty may be observed in the acquisition of subject head-final relative clauses, which is not evident in that of subject head-initial relative clauses.
Articolo in rivista - Articolo scientifico
relative clauses, Mandarin, dual language, bilingualism, second language
English
11-ago-2020
2020
11
1379
open
Hu, S., Costa, F., Guasti, M. (2020). Mandarin-Italian dual-language children’s comprehension of head-final and head-initial relative clauses. FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY, 11 [10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01379].
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10281/283503
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