Article published In:
Linguistic Approaches to BilingualismVol. 5:2 (2015) ► pp.252–284
The acquisition of dative alternation by German-English bilingual and English monolingual children
The vulnerability of the syntax–semantics interface in simultaneous bilingual first language acquisition is still up for debate; while some scholars have found crosslinguistic transfer at this interface, others found no such influence. To determine which kinds of syntax–semantics interface phenomena may be vulnerable, this study examines the acquisition and use of dative alternation by German-English bilingual children and adults compared with English monolingual children and German and English monolingual adults.The study shows that bilingual children interpret and comprehend dative constructions in English like their monolingual peers but their production of dative constructions in German is influenced by English. This suggests that syntax–semantics interface phenomena relating to the representation of verbs’ objects are vulnerable to influence. However, bilingual adults perform like monolinguals in both languages. These results suggest that any indeterminacy in the use of dative alternation in the adult state is due to L1 attrition rather than incomplete L1 acquisition.
References
Behrens, H.
(2006) The input-output relationship in first language acquisition. Language and Cognitive Processes, 21(1-3), 2–24. 
Biggs, A.
(2013 30th August). Microparametric variation in A-movement in Northwest British English. [Annual Meeting of the Linguistics Association of Great Britain]. School of Oriental and African Studies.
Bowerman, M.
(1985) Beyond communicative adequacy: From piecemeal knowledge to an integrated system in the child’s acquisition of language. In K. Nelson (Ed.), Children’s language (pp. 369–398). Hillsdale, NJ.: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Bresnan, J., & Nikitina, T.
(2003) On the gradience of the dative alternation. Online manuscript, retrieved February 3, 2014, from [URL].
Bruening, B.
(2010) Double object constructions disguised as prepositional datives. Linguistic Inquiry, 41(2), 287–305.
Bruyn, A., Muysken, P., & Verrips, M.
(1999) Double-object constructions in the creole languages: Development and acquisition. In M. DeGraff (Ed.), Language creation and language change: Creolization, diachrony, and development (pp. 329–373). Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press.
Callies, M., & Szczesniak, K.
(2008) Argument realisation, information status and syntactic weight – a learner-corpus study of the dative alternation. Online manuscript, retrieved April 30, 2012, from [URL].
Cook, V.J.
(1976) A note on indirect objects. Journal of Child Language, 3(3), 435–437.
Drenhaus, H.
(2004) Minimalism, features and parallel grammars: on the acquisition of German ditransitive structures. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Potsdam.
Drenhaus, H., & Féry, C.
(2008) Animacy and child grammar: An OT account. Lingua, 118(2), 222–244.
Eisenbeiss, S., Bartke, S., & Clahsen, H.
(2006) Structural and lexical case in child German: Evidence from language-impaired and typically developing children. Language Acquisition, 13(1), 3–32. DOI:
Gathercole, V.C.M.
(2002a) Command of the mass/count distinction in bilingual and monolingual children: An English morphosyntactic distinction. In D.K. Oller, & R.E. Eilers (Eds.), Language and literacy in bilingual children (pp. 175–206). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
(2002b) Grammatical gender in bilingual and monolingual children: A Spanish morphosyntactic distinction. In D.K. Oller, & R.E. Eilers (Eds.), Language and literacy in bilingual children (pp. 207–219). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Genesee, F., Paradis, J., & Crago, M.
(2004) Dual language development and disorders: A handbook on bilingualism and second language learning. Baltimore, MD.: Brookes.
Gropen, J., Pinker, S., Hollander, M., Goldberg, R., & Wilson, R.
(1989) The learnability and acquisition of the dative alternation in English. Language, 65(2), 203–257.
Grosjean, F.
(2008) Studying bilinguals. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.
Haddican, W.
(2010) Theme-goal ditransitives and theme passivisation in British English dialects. Lingua, 120(10), 2424–2443.
Hulk, A., & Müller, N.
(2000) Bilingual first language acquisition at the interface between syntax and pragmatics. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 31, 227–244.
Jackendoff, R.
(2002) Foundations of language: Brain, meaning, grammar, evolution. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
König, E., & Gast, V.
(2007) Understanding English-German contrasts, 2nd ed. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag.
Krifka, M.
(2004) Semantic and pragmatic conditions for the dative alternation. Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics, 41, 1–32.
Kupisch, T.
(2012) Specific and generic subjects in the Italian of German-Italian simultaneous bilinguals and L2 learners. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15(4), 726–756.
Kupisch, T., Akpinar, D., & Stöhr, A.
(2013) Gender assignment and gender agreement in adult bilinguals and second language learners of French. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 3(2), 150–179.
Lardiere, D.
Larson, R.K.
(1988) On the double object construction. Linguistic Inquiry, 19(3), 335–361.
Levin, B.
(1993) English verb classes and alternations: a preliminary investigation. Chicago, IL.: The University of Chicago Press.
Liamkina, O.
(2008) Making dative a case for semantic analysis: differences in use between native and non-native speakers of German. In A. Tyler, M. Takada, & Y. Kim (Eds.), Language in the context of use: Discourse and cognitive approaches to language (pp. 145–166). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
MacWhinney, B.
(2000) The CHILDES Project: Tools for analysing talk, 3rd ed. Mahwah, NJ.: Erlbaum.
Meisel, J.M.
(1989) Early differentiation of languages in bilingual children. In K. Hyltenstam, & L.K. Obler (Eds.), Bilingualism across the lifespan: Aspects of acquisition, maturity and loss (pp. 13–40). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mills, A.E.
(1985) The acquisition of German. In D.I. Slobin (Ed.), The crosslinguistic study of language acquisition. Volume 1: The data (pp. 141–254). Hillsdale, NJ.: Erlbaum.
Montrul, S.
(2004) Subject and object expression in Spanish heritage speakers. A case of morphosyntactic convergence. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 7(2), 125–142.
(2006) On the bilingual competence of Spanish heritage speakers. Syntax, lexical-semantics and processing. International Journal of Bilingualism, 10(1), 37–69.
Montrul, S.A.
(2008) Incomplete acquisition in bilingualism: Re-examining the age factor. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Montrul, S., & Ionin, T.
(2010) Transfer effects in the interpretation of definite articles by Spanish heritage speakers. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 13(4), 440–473.
Müller, N., & Hulk, A.
(2001) Crosslinguistic influence in bilingual language acquisition: Italian and French as recipient languages. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 4(1), 1–21.
Paradis, J.
(2011) The impact of input on bilingual language development: quantity versus quality. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 1(1), 67–70.
Pérez-Leroux, A.T., Pirvulescu, M., & Roberge, Y.
(2009) Bilingualism as a window into the language faculty: The acquisition of objects in French-speaking children in bilingual and monolingual contexts. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 12(1), 97–112.
Pinker, S.
(1989) Learnability and cognition: The acquisition of argument structure. Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press.
Pires, A., & Rothman, J.
(2011) An integrated perspective on comparative bilingual differences: Beyond the interface problem? Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 1(1), 74–78.
Pylkkänen, L.
(2008) Introducing arguments. Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press.
Rappaport Hovav, M., & Levin, B.
(2008) The English dative alternation: The case for verb sensitivity. Journal of Linguistics, 44(1), 129–167.
Rothman, J.
(2009) Understanding the nature and outcomes of early bilingualism: Romance languages as heritage languages. International Journal of Bilingualism, 13(2), 155–163.
Schmitz, K.
(2006) Indirect objects and dative case in monolingual German and bilingual German-Romance language acquisition. In D. Hole, A. Meinunger, & W. Abraham (Eds.), Datives and other cases: Between argument structure and event structure (pp. 239–268). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Schönenberger, M., Sterner, F., & Ruberg, T.
(2011) The realization of indirect objects and dative case in German. In J. Herschensohn, & D. Tanner (Eds.), Proceedings of the 11th Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition Conference (GASLA 2011) (pp. 143–151). Somerville, MA.: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
Schönenberger, M., Rothweiler, M., & Sterner, F.
(2012) Case marking in child L1 and early child L2 German. In K. Braunmüller, & C. Gabriel (Eds.), Multilingual individuals and multilingual societies (pp. 3–22). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Siewierska, A.
(1998) Languages with and without objects: The Functional Grammar approach. Languages in Contrast, 11, 173–190.
Silva-Corvalán, C.
(2014) Bilingual language acquisition: Spanish and English in the first six years. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Snyder, W., & Stromswold, K.
(1997) The structure and acquisition of English dative constructions. Linguistic Inquiry, 28(2), 281–317.
Sorace, A., & Filiaci, F.
(2006) Anaphora resolution in near-native speakers of Italian. Second Language Research, 22(3), 339–368.
Sorace, A., & Serratrice, L.
(2009) Internal and external interfaces in bilingual language development: Beyond structural overlap. International Journal of Bilingualism, 13(2), 195–210.
Sorace, A.
(2011) Pinning down the concept of “interface” in bilingualism. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 1(1), 1–33.
Stöhr, A., Akpinar, D., Bianchi, G., & Kupisch, T.
(2012) Gender marking in Italian-German heritage speakers and L2 learners of German. In K. Braunmüller, & C. Gabriel (Eds.), Multilingual individuals and multilingual societies (MIMS) (pp. 153–170). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Thornton, R.
(1998) Elicited production. In D. McDaniel, C. McKee, & H.S. Cairns (Eds.), Methods for assessing children’s syntax (pp. 77–102). Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press.
Tsimpli, I., & Sorace, A.
(2006) Differentiating interfaces: L2 performance in syntax–semantics and syntax-discourse phenomena. Proceedings of the 30th annual Boston university conference in language development, 653–664.
Van der Linden, E.
(2000) Non-selective access and activation in child bilingualism: The lexicon. In S. Döpke (Ed.), Cross-linguistic structures in simultaneous bilingualism (pp. 37–56). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
von Stutterheim, C.
Weissenborn, J., Kail, M., & Friederici, A.
(1990) Language-particular or language-independent factors in acquisition? Children’s comprehension of object pronouns in Dutch, French and German. First Language, 101, 141–166.
Yip, V.
(2013) Simultaneous language acquisition. In F. Grosjean, & P. Li (Eds.), The psycholinguistics of bilingualism (pp. 119–144). Malden, MA.: Wiley-Blackwell.
Yip, V., & Matthews, S.
(2007) The bilingual child: Early development and language contact. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Zarqane, S.
(2009) Dative constructions in English-French bilingual and monolingual acquisition. Unpublished MA dissertation, University of Sheffield.
Cited by
Cited by 3 other publications
Kupisch, Tanja
2021. Heritage Languages in Europe. In The Cambridge Handbook of Heritage Languages and Linguistics, ► pp. 45 ff. 
Yang, Charles & Silvina Montrul
2017. Learning datives: The Tolerance Principle in monolingual and bilingual acquisition. Second Language Research 33:1 ► pp. 119 ff.
[no author supplied]
2021. Heritage Languages around the World. In The Cambridge Handbook of Heritage Languages and Linguistics, ► pp. 11 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 29 october 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.