Abstract
In both child and adult Cantonese, code-mixing is used productively. We focus on the insertion of English verbs into Cantonese utterances. Data from nine simultaneous bilingual children in the Hong Kong Bilingual Child Language Corpus are analyzed. Case studies show that the children’s rates of mixing closely match the rate of mixing in the parental input, and that different input conditions influence rates of mixing. The bilingual children, nevertheless, show creativity, notably in inserting phrasal verb-particle combinations into a Cantonese frame. We argue that this is an innovation not derived from adult input.
Highlights
IntroductionIt has been argued that the input to which children are exposed plays a more decisive role in bilingual than monolingual development [1,2]
Input and Code-Mixing in Bilingual DevelopmentIt has been argued that the input to which children are exposed plays a more decisive role in bilingual than monolingual development [1,2]
The data for this study come from the Hong Kong Bilingual Child Language Corpus, which at the time of writing contained longitudinal data for seven 1P1L and two 1P2L children
Summary
It has been argued that the input to which children are exposed plays a more decisive role in bilingual than monolingual development [1,2]. The input available to the bilingual child is divided among two or more languages, and is typically reduced in each language relative to monolingual environments [3]. The dual input is typically unevenly distributed, often leading to uneven development of the two languages [4]: most bilingual children show dominance in one language over the other, while balanced bilingual children are the exception rather than the rule. Differential input effects are found across different domains in bilingual children [5]. In the case of code-mixing, there is ample evidence for effects of input. An experimental study which manipulated the rate of mixing in the input found a close relationship between rates of mixing produced by adults and children [6]
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