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Article published In:
Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism
Vol. 8:5 (2018) ► pp.637–663

The acquisition of the weaker language

Evidence from the acquisition of Russian cases by a Turkish-Russian child

| Hacettepe University
| University College London

This study contributes to the discussion about the status of the weaker language (WL) by investigating whether reduced input in Russian in a Turkish-dominant environment is sufficient for monolingual-like acquisition of the WL. We focus on the acquisition of Russian cases by a Turkish-Russian child who has acquired his Russian in the Turkish-dominant environment mainly through interaction with his multilingual mother. The data were collected via video/audio recordings, covering the period of between two years and eleven months and four years of the participant. First, the data were examined in terms of the availability of Russian cases and their functions. Then, we looked into whether the data were marked with deviations from monolingual norms in terms of error rates and patterns. The findings suggested that despite the reduced input, the acquisition of Russian cases by the Turkish-Russian participant follows the same pattern as monolingual acquisition does.

Keywords: Bilingual first language acquisition, Russian – Turkish, reduced input, weaker language, Russian cases
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Role of input in bilingual acquisition
    • 2.1Input threshold
  • 3.Typological characteristics of Russian and Russian cases
    • 3.1The Russian case system
  • 4.Acquisition of Russian cases by monolingual children
  • 5.Acquisition of Russian cases by bilingual children
  • 6.Method
    • 6.1Participant
    • 6.2Data collection and transcription
    • 6.3Data analysis
  • 7.Results
    • 7.1Overall use of Russian cases in S.’s production
    • 7.2Functions of Russian cases in S.’s production
    • 7.3Error patterns in S.’s production
  • 8.Discussion
  • 9.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 2 November 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.16029.ant
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