Early Lexical Development and the Development of Translation Equivalents in a Simultaneous Bilingual Child

I Nyoman Suparwa,I Wayan Pastika,Ni Luh Putu Sri Adnyani,Ni Luh Sutjiati Beratha

doi:10.24843/ejl.2017.v11.i02.p04

I Nyoman Suparwa, I Wayan Pastika + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.24843/ejl.2017.v11.i02.p04

Copy DOI

Abstract

This study focuses on the development of lexicon by a child raised simulatneously in Indonesian and German from birth. In the immediate family members, the child received Indonesian from the mother and German from the father. The data was collected in natural setting when the child was 1;0 up to 3;0. In collecting the data, diary records and weekly video recordings were used. The data was analized using two softwares, ELAN and Toolbox. The child’s speech was segmented based on the child’s utterances. The result of the study shows that at the end of the study the child developed 521 lexicon in Indonesian and 243 in German. Both in Indonesian and German the child acquired more nouns than verbs. Besides, the child also developed about 164 translation equivalents. Thus, it confirms that the bilingual child developed two different lexical systems.

Highlights

IntroductionHow bilingual children develop their two linguistic systems is still a matter of debate
How bilingual children develop their two linguistic systems is still a matter of debate.Researchers such as Leopold (1978) and Volterra & Taeschner (1978) believed that at the begining bilingual children fuse two linguistic systems and the children are not able to develop the two systems separately
The hyphothesis of fusing two linguistic systems was opposed by other researchers who gave evidence that bilingual children are able to separate language systems since very early in their language development in almost all linguistic domains

Summary

Introduction

How bilingual children develop their two linguistic systems is still a matter of debate Researchers such as Leopold (1978) and Volterra & Taeschner (1978) believed that at the begining bilingual children fuse two linguistic systems and the children are not able to develop the two systems separately. The hyphothesis of fusing two linguistic systems was opposed by other researchers who gave evidence that bilingual children are able to separate language systems since very early in their language development in almost all linguistic domains. Lexicon is a mental dictionary that is used by language user at the time he or she is acting as a listener (or a reader) or as a speaker (or a writer) (Dardjowidjojo, 2000; see Clark, 1993). This dictionary is situated in a person‟s memory so that he or she can use it in speaking or understanding other‟s utterances

Methods

Results

Conclusion