Chapter 8. Development of Japanese and English polar questions in bilingual first language acquisition

Abstract

This chapter examines the development of polar questions, in English and Japanese in a bilingual child acquiring these two typologically different languages from birth in a one-parent-one-language environment in Australia. The three-year longitudinal data-set was collected from the time Haru, the informant, was one year and eleven months of age. Her polar questions began with the use of rising intonation in single or two-word utterances in both languages. Her development continued in language-specific ways resembling that of L1 development in each language, much in line with the Prominence Hypothesis. As well as supporting this Hypothesis and the universality of PT in a bilingual first language acquisition (BFLA) context the study highlights the importance of the two-word stage in child language development and proposes a Two-word stage for PT’s developmental schedule, intermediate between the lemma stage and the canonical order stage within the BFLA context.