Kubota Maki, Heycock Caroline, Sorace Antonella, Rothman Jason
Department of Language and Culture, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway.
School of Philosophy, Psychology & Language Sciences, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
Front Psychol. 2020 Sep 18;11:560874. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.560874. eCollection 2020.
This study investigates the choice of genitive forms (the woman's book vs. the book of the woman) in the English of Japanese-English bilingual returnees (i.e., children who returned from a second language dominant environment to their first language environment). The specific aim was to examine whether change in language dominance/exposure influences choice of genitive form in the bilingual children; the more general question was the extent to which observed behavior can be explained by cross linguistic influence (CLI). First, we compared the choice of genitive form between monolingual English speakers and bilinguals who had recently returned to Japan from an English speaking environment. Second, we tracked changes in genitive preference within bilingual children, comparing their performances upon return to Japan to those of one year later. Results show that CLI alone is insufficient to explain the difference in genitive evaluation between bilinguals and monolinguals, as well as the intra-group bilingual variation over time. We suggest that both CLI and general processing considerations couple together to influence the changes in genitive preference.
本研究调查了日英双语归国者（即从第二语言主导环境回到第一语言环境的儿童）在英语中所有格形式（如“the woman's book”与“the book of the woman”）的选择情况。具体目的是检验语言主导/接触的变化是否会影响双语儿童所有格形式的选择；更普遍的问题是观察到的行为在多大程度上可以用跨语言影响（CLI）来解释。首先，我们比较了单语英语使用者和刚从英语环境回到日本的双语者在所有格形式上的选择。其次，我们跟踪了双语儿童所有格偏好的变化，将他们回到日本时的表现与一年后的表现进行比较。结果表明，仅跨语言影响不足以解释双语者和单语者在所有格评价上的差异，以及双语者群体内部随时间的变化。我们认为，跨语言影响和一般处理因素共同作用，影响所有格偏好的变化。
