Linguistic Variation - Volume 14, Issue 1, 2014

This paper has two aims:* first, to emphasize how the linguistic input to which children are exposed is inherently variable and complex. To this end, we will discuss two particular phenomena in Dutch, namely Aux+Inf and gender marking in DP’s. These phenomena lend themselves to a comparison in terms of the nature of the individual, social and regional variation in the input. Second, regarding the question of whether bidialectal acquisition is the same as bilingual acquisition, it seems that there are, in fact, significant differences between the two. Bidialectal children score significantly higher on vocabulary tests than bilingual speakers, they use the Aux+Inf structure in a different way and they also acquire the neuter gender of the Dutch definite determiner significantly faster than bilingual children. Importantly, this paper also explores whether we can maintain a distinction between monolingual and bidialectal children in so-called bidialectal areas.

Children are often exposed to considerable variation in the input. Nevertheless, there is very little overgeneralization in child language data and children are typically found to make errors of omission, not errors of commission, a fact which is often referred to as conservative learning. In this paper, these findings are accounted for by a model of micro-cues, a generative approach to language acquisition arguing that children are sensitive to fine syntactic distinctions from early on. The micro-cues are small pieces of abstract syntactic structure resulting from parsing the input. This means that UG provides children with principles, features, and the ability to parse, but not the micro-cues themselves, which are considered to be part of the knowledge of a specific language. The model also considers children’s errors to generally be due to economy and the language acquisition process to be development in small steps, from specific to more general knowledge. Keywords: Conservative learning; economy; English; grammar competition; Norwegian; (over- and under)generalization; parameter; rule “size”; word order

English articles represent one of the most challenging areas of second language acquisition for learners whose L1 lacks articles. The two studies presented here examine the developmental sequence of acquisition, the first through a cross-sectional analysis of Thai learners at different levels of overall English proficiency, the second through a longitudinal experiment in which learners were exposed to semantically-tailored tokens of article use, but without any explicit or meta-linguistic instruction. It is argued that the data do not show evidence of abrupt parameter resetting. Instead, the developmental patterns fit well with Yang’s variational model of acquisition. Keywords: L2 acquisition; article systems; determiners; definiteness; specificity

This cross-sectional study investigates the acquisition of the interpretation of syntactic and semantic aspects of wh-questions by Cypriot Greek-speaking children aged 4 to 9 years. Two experimental tools were employed, a question–picture-matching task examining the comprehension of D-linked and non-D-linked questions for subject and object, and a question-after-picture task examining the comprehension of the notion of exhaustivity in single and multiple wh-questions. The results from these experiments are interpreted in light of current theoretical advances and cross-linguistic comparisons. The apparent discrepancies found in the development of Greek Cypriot children’s comprehension of wh-questions and exhaustivity are put in perspective with their particular linguistic environment – diglossia, in which children grow up with two varieties, Cypriot Greek and Standard Modern Greek. Keywords: bilectalism; D(iscourse)-linking; first language acquisition; multiple wh-questions; single wh-questions

This paper investigates the gradient nature of acceptability judgements and grammatical variants in the bilectal population of Cyprus, by comparatively discussing the findings of two recent experiments on (i) exhaustivity effects in Cypriot Greek clefts and embu ‘it is that’-structures (Leivada et al. 2013) and (ii) clitic placement and how it is affected by lexical and syntactic stimulation (Papadopoulou et al. 2014). The analysis lays emphasis on the intra-dialectal variation observed across speakers’ performance in both experiments. Variation is discussed in relation to socio-syntactic aspects of language use, such as (i) the existence of competing grammars (Tsiplakou 2007, in press) and competing motivations (Grohmann & Leivada 2012, to appear) in bilectal environments such as the one in Cyprus, (ii) the notion of gradience existent within a dialect–standard continuum (e.g. Cornips 2006 for Dutch, Leivada et al. 2013 for Greek), and (iii) syntactic/semantic factors that inform our participants’ performance. Keywords: acceptability judgments; clefts; clitics; Cypriot Greek; gradience; embu; exhaustivity; competing grammars

This study reports two experiments that investigate the edge-tones and domain-specific effects on final lengthening. The study shows that in Cypriot Greek the following occur: (a) lengthening applies primarily on the syllable nucleus not the syllable onset, which suggests variety specific effects of lengthening; (b) lengthening depends on the edge-tones, namely, polar questions trigger more lengthening than statements and wh-questions; (c) lengthening provides support for at least two distinct prosodic domains over the phonological word, the intonational phrase and the intermediate phrase; greater lengthening associates with the first and shorter lengthening with the latter; (d) finally, syllable duration depends on the syllable distance from the boundary, i.e. lengthening locally applies on penultimates and ultimates whereas antepenultimates are affected the least. Additionally, by pointing to the distinct lengthening effects of edge-tones and domain-boundaries, the aforementioned findings highlight the application of different lengthening devices. Keywords: Prosodic structure; preboundary lengthening; edge-tone lengthening; Cypriot Greek

Cypriot and Standard Greek still stand in a diglossic relationship; however, recent work on Cypriot Greek points to ongoing processes of levelling of local sub-varieties and the emergence of a pancypriot koiné. This paper explores patterns of structural mixing between Standard and Cypriot Greek in the Cypriot koiné. The data indicate that structural mixing is mostly achieved through morphological choices, while Cypriot phonology and syntax remain largely intact. The fact that morphology has this capacity of a ‘buffer’ between two presumably competing grammatical systems provides a strong parallel to interlanguage phenomena and a potential account of why the two systems are prevented from merging. Keywords: competing grammars; Cypriot Greek; diglossia; koiné; levelling; Standard Greek