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Input frequency and the acquisition of subject-verb agreement in number in spoken and written French

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 December 2012

MALIN ÅGREN  and
JOOST VAN DE WEIJER
MALIN ÅGREN*
Affiliation:
Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University, Sweden
JOOST VAN DE WEIJER
Affiliation:
Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University, Sweden
*
Address for correspondence: Malin Ågren, Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University, Box 201, 221 00 Lund, Sweden e-mail: malin.agren@rom.lu.se
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Abstract

The present study focuses on the characteristics of subject-verb agreement in number in spoken and written French, two morphological systems that are very different. In particular, we investigate the impact of frequency of forms and morphological patterns in the input on the acquisition of number agreement in monolingual and bilingual French-speaking children (n = 32). Our results demonstrate an almost perfect fit between the partial and heterogeneous nature of number agreement in the spoken input and the errors found in the children's spoken narratives. However, the influence of a highly systematic written number-agreement on the children's written narratives is weak, mainly due to the lack of phonological cues of number agreement in written French.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of French Language Studies , Volume 23 , Issue 3 , November 2013 , pp. 311 - 333
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012 

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