Diversity and divergence in bilingual acquisition
Bilingual settings are perceived as exemplary cases of linguistic diversity, and they are assumed to trigger cross-linguistic interaction. The rationale underlying this assumption is the belief that when more than one language is processed in a brain, this will inevitably affect the way in which lin...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
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De Gruyter
2021-06-01
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| Series: | Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1515/zfs-2021-2025 |
| Summary: | Bilingual settings are perceived as exemplary cases of linguistic diversity, and they are assumed to trigger cross-linguistic interaction. The rationale underlying this assumption is the belief that when more than one language is processed in a brain, this will inevitably affect the way in which linguistic knowledge is acquired, stored and used. However, this idea stands in conflict with results obtained by research on children acquiring two (or more) languages simultaneously. They have been demonstrated to be able to differentiate languages from early on and to develop competences qualitatively identical to those of monolinguals. These studies thus provide little evidence supporting the idea that bilingualism must lead to divergent grammatical development. |
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| ISSN: | 0721-9067 1613-3706 |