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Growing syntactic structure and code-mixing in the weaker language: The Ivy Hypothesis

Bernardini, Petra LU and Schlyter, Suzanne LU (2004) In Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 7(1). p.49-69
Abstract
We present a hypothesis for a specific kind of code-mixing in young bilingual children, during the development of their two first languages, one of which is considerably weaker than the other. Our hypothesis, which we label the Ivy Hypothesis, is that, in the interaction meant to be in the weaker language, the child uses portions of higher syntactic structure lexically instantiated in the stronger language combined with lower portions in the weaker language. Code-mixing patterns were studied in five Swedish-French/Italian children aged 2-4. The parts of the code-mixed utterances reflected as much syntactic structure of each language as was used in monolingual utterances in the same recording of each child. This uneven development, which is... (More)
We present a hypothesis for a specific kind of code-mixing in young bilingual children, during the development of their two first languages, one of which is considerably weaker than the other. Our hypothesis, which we label the Ivy Hypothesis, is that, in the interaction meant to be in the weaker language, the child uses portions of higher syntactic structure lexically instantiated in the stronger language combined with lower portions in the weaker language. Code-mixing patterns were studied in five Swedish-French/Italian children aged 2-4. The parts of the code-mixed utterances reflected as much syntactic structure of each language as was used in monolingual utterances in the same recording of each child. This uneven development, which is due to different amounts of input of the two languages, can be accounted for by assuming that syntactic structure is acquired by building each language from the bottom up through lexical learning. (Less)
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author
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type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition
volume
7
issue
1
pages
49 - 69
publisher
Cambridge University Press
ISSN
1366-7289
DOI
10.1017/S1366728904001270
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
98646999-a90e-49b2-9e85-dcf91e634a8c (old id 138300)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 12:13:38
date last changed
2018-11-21 20:05:12
@article{98646999-a90e-49b2-9e85-dcf91e634a8c,
  abstract     = {{We present a hypothesis for a specific kind of code-mixing in young bilingual children, during the development of their two first languages, one of which is considerably weaker than the other. Our hypothesis, which we label the Ivy Hypothesis, is that, in the interaction meant to be in the weaker language, the child uses portions of higher syntactic structure lexically instantiated in the stronger language combined with lower portions in the weaker language. Code-mixing patterns were studied in five Swedish-French/Italian children aged 2-4. The parts of the code-mixed utterances reflected as much syntactic structure of each language as was used in monolingual utterances in the same recording of each child. This uneven development, which is due to different amounts of input of the two languages, can be accounted for by assuming that syntactic structure is acquired by building each language from the bottom up through lexical learning.}},
  author       = {{Bernardini, Petra and Schlyter, Suzanne}},
  issn         = {{1366-7289}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{49--69}},
  publisher    = {{Cambridge University Press}},
  series       = {{Bilingualism: Language and Cognition}},
  title        = {{Growing syntactic structure and code-mixing in the weaker language: The Ivy Hypothesis}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/2835643/624731.pdf}},
  doi          = {{10.1017/S1366728904001270}},
  volume       = {{7}},
  year         = {{2004}},
}