Reports an analysis of /l/ production by English-Arabic bilingual children. Addresses the question of whether the bilingual develops one phonological system or two by calling for a refinement of the notion of system using insights from recent phonetic and sociolinguistic work on variability in speech. English-Arabic bilinguals were studied.…

Reports on a study into the acquisition of Welsh and English phonology in Welsh-English bilingual children. Concentrates on the acquisition of the rhotic consonants--the trilled -r of Welsh and the approximant -r of English. (Author/VWL)

Addresses the issue of whether bilingual children begin phonological acquisition with one phonological system or two. Five hypotheses are suggested for the possible structure of the bilingual child's phonological system. Analyses from a longitudinal study of a Farsi-English bilingual infant supported the hypothesis that the child had acquired two…

Argues that the question of whether bilinguals initially have one or two phonetic systems is out of place, because before the child develops a fairly substantial vocabulary of about 100 words, there is no system at all. This is supported by analyses of early word patterns drawn from three bilingual children. (Author/VWL)

Analyzes data from natural Igbo-English bilingual discourse that demonstrates how the two most important manifestations of language contact--codeswitching and borrowing--can be unambiguously and consistently distinguished. (Author/VWL)

Investigates the lexical forms of speech sound production of a child learning Norwegian and English bilingually from birth. Data for lexical analysis are words attested by the MacArthur Development Inventory for Infants and diary data when the child was 1;2 to 1;8 years of age. (Author/VWL)

Suggests that children follow different paths into learning verbs, and that there are several forces guiding the learning process: cognitive as well as language specific matters, such as morphology, semantics, and discourse. Sketches the basic characteristics of verbs in Tzotzil and examines two children's productions at the end of their…

Deals with two compromise strategies: (1) embedded language islands (EL Islands), and (2) "bare forms" in code switching (CS) within the projection of complementizer. These elements are discussed within the framework of the Matrix Language Frame Model. Shows how this model provides an explanatory account for the occurrence of both EL…

Among Gaelic-English bilinguals in East Sunderland, Scotland, code choice is made according to interlocutor. When the chosen code is Gaelic, the community norm for rendering direct quotations within a narrative is to produce them in Gaelic, regardless of which language was used originally or whether the quoted person is capable of speaking Gaelic.…

Examines the structural consequences of the contact between Dutch overseers and Eastern slaves during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the formation of Berbice Dutch, an unusual Creole because of its remarkably homogeneous substrate. (Author/VWL)

Provides an overview of the topic of this special issue of the journal--discourse markers in bilingual conversation. Introduces the studies included in the issue, which investigate discourse markers in bilingual conversation from a variety of perspectives. As a whole the articles document the phenomenon of language alternation at discourse markers…

Examines data recorded in Shaba, a province in the Congo, and documents the marked preference to employ French discourse markers in Shaba Swahili discourse. Treats discourse markers as a special kind of contextualization cue that ties parts of a discourse to each other, creating cohesion and coherence. (Author/VWL)

Argues for a cognitive motivation behind the nonseparation of systems of discourse marking available to bilinguals. Produces evidence that bilingual speakers, in an unconscious effort to reduce the mental effort necessary to monitor and direct the hearer's responses and reactions to the speaker's utterances, can simplify monitoring-and-directing…

Examines two phenomena of language alternation in biographic narrations in Yiddish and Low German, based on spoken language data recorded between 1988-1995. The first is a narrative strategy referred to as token codeswitching; the second has to do with directing procedures, carried out by the speaker and aimed at guiding and supporting the…

Addresses the morphosyntactic development of two bilingual children and the issues raised by the controversy between the single system and the separate development hypotheses. Set within a generative grammar framework, evidence on German/English and Latvian/English is presented from the earliest stages of language development. (Author/VWL)