Phonological vs. Natural Gender Cues in the Acquisition of German by Simultaneous and Sequential Bilinguals (German-Russian)

Autor/inn/en	Kupisch, Tanja; Mitrofanova, Natalia; Westergaard, Marit
Titel	Phonological vs. Natural Gender Cues in the Acquisition of German by Simultaneous and Sequential Bilinguals (German-Russian)
Quelle	In: Journal of Child Language, 49 (2022) 4, S.661-683 (23 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0305-0009
DOI	10.1017/S0305000921000039
Schlagwörter	Phonology; German; Russian; Language Acquisition; Cues; Nouns; Bilingual Students; Semantics; Form Classes (Languages); Syntax + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Fonologie; Deutscher; Russisch; Sprachaneignung; Spracherwerb; Stichwort; Semantik; Analytischer Sprachbau
Abstract	We investigate German-Russian bilingual children's sensitivity to formal and semantic cues when assigning gender to nouns in German. Across languages, young children have been shown to primarily rely on phonological cues, whereas sensitivity to semantic and syntactic cues increases with age. With its semi-transparent gender assignment system, where both formal and semantic cues are psycho linguistically relevant, German has weak phonological cues compared to other languages, and children have been argued to acquire semantic and phonological rules in tandem. German-Russian bilingual children face the challenge of acquiring two different gender assignment systems simultaneously. We tested 45 bilingual children (ages 4-10 years) and monolingual controls. Results show that the children are clearly sensitive to phonological cues, while semantic cues play a minor role. However, monolingual and bilingual children have different defaulting strategies, with monolinguals defaulting to neuter and bilinguals to feminine gender. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01