Number problems in monolingual and bilingual French-speaking children: A production/comprehension divide?
Author
Summary, in English
The present study focuses on the acquisition of subject-verb agreement in number in spoken French. We compare production and comprehension of singular and plural verb forms in French monolingual and French-Swedish bilingual children (n=58) aged from five to ten years. Overall, the results demonstrate that subject-verb agreement in number is a challenge to all French-speaking children, be it monolingual or bilingual, due to its heterogeneous, partial and lexically restricted nature. Furthermore, in production, bilingual children omit plural verb forms significantly more often than monolinguals. However, in comprehension they pattern with their monolingual peers. The data also illustrate an asymmetric pattern: Plural verb forms are more easily comprehended than produced whereas singular verb forms are more easily produced than comprehended. The reasons for this asymmetry are discussed from a usage-based perspective, focusing on the frequency of verb forms and agreement patterns in the French input.
Department/s
Publishing year
2013
Language
English
Pages
25-50
Publication/Series
Language, Interaction and Acquisition
Volume
4
Issue
1
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Topic
- Languages and Literature
- General Language Studies and Linguistics
Keywords
- Monolingual and bilingual acquisition of French
- subject-verb agreement
- number agreement
- production and comprehension asymmetries
- spoken French
Status
Published
Project
- Age of onset and development of French
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1879-7865