NotesFAQContact Us
Collection
Advanced
Search Tips
Showing all 11 results Save | Export
The "Cum-Sine" Pattern in German Child Language: An Argument for Antonym Decomposition
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Uli Sauerland; Marie-Christine Meyer; Kazuko Yatsushiro – Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, 2025
German-speaking children between ages 2 and 3 mostly use the preposition ohne ('without') in an adult-like way, to express the absence of something. In this article we present surprising results from a corpus study suggesting that in this age group, absence can also be expressed using the sequence mit ohne 'with without'. We argue that this…
Descriptors: Toddlers, German, Child Language, Form Classes (Languages)
Focus Effect Unveils Children's Local Processing of Pronouns and Reflexives
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Regina Hert; Anja Arnhold; Juhani Järvikivi – Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, 2025
Studies on young children's comprehension have shown that children can experience problems interpreting object pronouns, even when reflexive interpretation is already adult-like. Compared to resolving reflexives, linking pronouns to a referent is considered a more "intensive" process, because it also involves non-syntactic factors like…
Descriptors: Child Language, Language Processing, Language Acquisition, Form Classes (Languages)
Gender Processing in Simultaneous and Successive Bilingual Children: Cross-Linguistic Lexical and Syntactic Influences
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Lemmerth, Natalia; Hopp, Holger – Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, 2019
To investigate cross-linguistic lexical and syntactic influences in grammatical gender in early bilingualism, we tested 12 simultaneous, 12 early successive bilingual Russian-German children, and 15 monolingual German children aged 8-9 years. An elicited production task in German shows that all bilingual children assign target gender to nouns,…
Descriptors: German, Bilingualism, Syntax, Russian
The Effects of Language Input on Word Order in German as a Heritage and Majority Language
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Sopata, Aldona; Dlugosz, Kamil – Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, 2022
This study addresses the question of how the main factors related to input--including the environment in which children are exposed to both languages, the relative timing of the onset of the exposure to them and the amount of input--affect bilingual language acquisition at primary-school age. We examined the data of 42 German Polish bilinguals who…
Descriptors: Linguistic Input, German, Word Order, Bilingualism
Inflectional Morphology in Bilingual Language Processing: An Age-Of-Acquisition Study
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Bosch, Sina; Veríssimo, João; Clahsen, Harald – Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, 2019
This study addresses the question of how age of acquisition (AoA) affects grammatical processing, specifically with respect to inflectional morphology, in bilinguals. We examined experimental data of more than 100 participants from the Russian/German community in Berlin, all of whom acquired Russian from birth and German at different ages. Using…
Descriptors: Age Differences, Second Language Learning, Morphology (Languages), Syntax
Selective Effects of Age of Acquisition on Morphological Priming: Evidence for a Sensitive Period
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Veríssimo, João; Heyer, Vera; Jacob, Gunnar; Clahsen, Harald – Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, 2018
Is there an ideal time window for language acquisition after which nativelike representation and processing are unattainable? Although this question has been heavily debated, no consensus has been reached. Here, we present evidence for a sensitive period in language development and show that it is specific to grammar. We conducted a masked priming…
Descriptors: Second Language Learning, Age Differences, Grammar, Bilingualism
Children's Interpretation of Disjunction in Negative Sentences: A Comparison of Turkish and German
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Geçkin, Vasfiye; Thornton, Rosalind; Crain, Stephen – Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, 2018
This study investigates the interpretation of disjunction words (English or) in negative sentences by Turkish- and German-speaking children. Both children and adults were asked to judge Turkish/German sentences corresponding to the English sentence "This animal did not eat the carrot or the pepper." Children acquiring both languages…
Descriptors: Contrastive Linguistics, Turkish, Language Acquisition, German
Typological and Developmental Considerations on Specific Language Impairment in Monolingual and Bilingual Children: A Processability Theory Account
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Håkansson, Gisela – Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, 2017
This article suggests a method to deal with cross-linguistic differences in children with Specific Language Impairment. The differences in vulnerable structures reflect typological properties of the surrounding language (e.g., Leonard 2014a, 2014b). This article adds a developmental perspective to the discussion by interpreting the vulnerable…
Descriptors: Language Impairments, Language Acquisition, Second Language Learning, Bilingualism
A Large-Scale Cross-Linguistic Investigation of the Acquisition of Passive
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Armon-Lotem, Sharon; Haman, Ewa; de López, Kristine Jensen; Smoczynska, Magdalena; Yatsushiro, Kazuko; Szczerbinski, Marcin; van Hout, Angeliek; Dabašinskiene, Ineta; Gavarró, Anna; Hobbs, Erin; Kamandulyte-Merfeldiene, Laura; Katsos, Napoleon; Kunnari, Sari; Nitsiou, Chrisa; Olsen, Lone Sundahl; Parramon, Xavier; Sauerland, Uli; Torn-Leesik, Reeli; van der Lely, Heather – Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, 2016
This cross-linguistic study evaluates children's understanding of passives in 11 typologically different languages: Catalan, Cypriot Greek, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, German, Hebrew, Lithuanian, and Polish. The study intends to determine whether the reported gaps between the comprehension of active and passive and between short and…
Descriptors: Language Research, Form Classes (Languages), Language Processing, Language Acquisition
Working Memory Effects in the L2 Processing of Ambiguous Relative Clauses
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Hopp, Holger – Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, 2014
This article investigates whether and how L2 sentence processing is affected by memory constraints that force serial parsing. Monitoring eye movements, we test effects of working memory on L2 relative-clause attachment preferences in a sample of 75 late-adult German learners of English and 25 native English controls. Mixed linear regression…
Descriptors: Short Term Memory, Language Research, Second Language Learning, Language Processing
The Debate on Maturational Constraints in Bilingual Development: A Perspective from First-Language Attrition
Peer reviewed Peer reviewed
Direct linkDirect link
Schmid, Monika S. – Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, 2014
A controversial topic in research on second-language acquisition is whether residual variability and optionality in high-proficiency late second-language (L2) learners is merely the outcome of cross-linguistic transfer, competition, and processing limitations, or whether late learners have an underlying representational deficit due to maturational…
Descriptors: Bilingualism, Second Language Learning, Language Skill Attrition, Transfer of Training