Elicited Production of Part/Whole and General/ Specific Articles by Four- to Nine-Year-Old Afrikaans- and South African English-Speaking Monolinguals

Abstract

This study sets out to investigate the use of articles, specifically the development of part/whole and general/specific article distinctions in Afrikaans- and English-speaking children. Previous studies comparing the development of these distinctions yielded conflicting results. In order to address this gap in the literature, a large-scale study was conducted on two languages. Two research questions were posed: (a) Does development in the article system take place after age four in terms of part/whole and general/specific distinctions?, and Specifically, is there a difference in children's production of part/whole and general/specific articles? An article production task was performed with 1012 Afrikaans- and 413 South African English-speaking four- to nine-year-olds. Results indicate that even the nine-year-olds had not mastered all items, and that items involving a part/whole distinction were more difficult, across age groups, than those involving a general/specific distinction.