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Article published In: Language, Interaction and Acquisition
Vol. 8:2 (2017) ► pp.204–233

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On the direction of cross-linguistic influence in the acquisition of object clitics in French and Italian

 | Lund University
 | Lund University
Published online: 2 March 2018
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https://doi.org/10.1075/lia.16005.ber
Abstract
Placement errors of object clitics (OCL) in French have been documented in 2L1 and L2 but not in L1 acquisition (Granfeldt, J. (2012). Development of object clitics in child L2 French. A comparison of developmental sequences in different modes of acquisition. Language, Interaction, Acquisition, 31, 140–162. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Hamann, C., & Belletti, A. (2006). Developmental patterns in the acquisition of complement clitic pronouns. Comparing different acquisition modes with an emphasis on French. Rivista di Grammatica Generativa, 311, 39–78.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). In the present study, we investigate whether placement errors of third person singular OCLs may be due to cross-linguistic influence. We exposed bilingual children (successive L1 French/L2 Italian and L1 Italian/L2 French and simultaneous 2L1 Italian/French) to an OCL elicitation task. The results showed significant differences between the 2L1 and L2 groups in comparison with the L1 groups, and between the languages, thus corroborating the findings of previous studies. Production accuracy of OCLs in general was highest in L1, and higher in Italian than in French. However, OCL placement errors were found in 2L1 French and L2 Italian as well as in the L1 French of children who had Italian as L2. These findings suggest that cross-linguistic influence is bidirectional (Foroodi-Nejad, F., & Paradis, J. (2009). Crosslinguistic transfer in the acquisition of compound words in Persian – English bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 121, 411–427. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Gu, C. (2010). Cross-linguistic influence in two directions: The acquisition of dative constructions in Cantonese-English bilingual children. International Journal of Bilingualism, 141, 87–103. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Nicoladis, E. (1999). “Where is my brush-teeth?” Acquisition of compound nouns in a French-English bilingual child. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 21, 245–256. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). We discuss these results in relation to the proposal that cross-linguistic influence should occur only in one direction, i.e. only in one language, and only under certain conditions (Hulk, A., & Müller, N. (2000). Bilingual first language acquisition at the interface between syntax and pragmatics. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 31, 227–244. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Müller, N., & Hulk, A. (2001). Cross-linguistic influence in bilingual language acquisition: Italian and French as recipient languages. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 41, 1–21. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar).
Résumé
Les erreurs dans le placement des pronoms clitiques objet sont documentées dans l’acquisition de 2L1 et de L2, mais non dans celle de L1 (Granfeldt, J. (2012). Development of object clitics in child L2 French. A comparison of developmental sequences in different modes of acquisition. Language, Interaction, Acquisition, 31, 140–162. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Hamann, C., & Belletti, A. (2006). Developmental patterns in the acquisition of complement clitic pronouns. Comparing different acquisition modes with an emphasis on French. Rivista di Grammatica Generativa, 311, 39–78.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). L’objectif de la présente étude est d’étudier si les erreurs de placement du pronom clitique objet de la troisième personne du singulier peuvent dépendre d’influences inter linguistiques. Pour ce faire, nous avons exposé des enfants bilingues successifs (L1 français/L2 italien et L1 italien/L2 français) et simultanés (2L1 italien/ français) à une tâche d’élicitation de pronoms clitiques objet. Les résultats montrent des différences significatives aussi bien entre les langues qu’entre les groupes 2L1 et L2 d’une part, et les groupes L1 d’autre part, ce qui corrobore les résultats d’études précédentes. La production de pronoms clitiques objet est globalement plus correcte en L1, et elle est plus correcte en italien qu’en français. Toutefois, on relève des erreurs de placement des pronoms clitiques objet en français 2L1 et en italien L2, ainsi qu’en français L1 chez des enfants ayant l’italien comme L2. Ces résultats, qui suggèrent que l’influence interlinguistique est bidirectionnelle (Gu, C. (2010). Cross-linguistic influence in two directions: The acquisition of dative constructions in Cantonese-English bilingual children. International Journal of Bilingualism, 141, 87–103. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Foroodi-Nejad, F., & Paradis, J. (2009). Crosslinguistic transfer in the acquisition of compound words in Persian – English bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 121, 411–427. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Nicoladis, E. (1999). “Where is my brush-teeth?” Acquisition of compound nouns in a French-English bilingual child. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 21, 245–256. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), sont discutés par rapport à l’hypothèse qu’elle serait unidirectionnelle, c’est-à-dire qu’elle se manifesterait dans une langue uniquement, et seulement sous certaines conditions (Hulk, A., & Müller, N. (2000). Bilingual first language acquisition at the interface between syntax and pragmatics. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 31, 227–244. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Müller, N., & Hulk, A. (2001). Cross-linguistic influence in bilingual language acquisition: Italian and French as recipient languages. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 41, 1–21. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar).
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The placement of third person direct object clitics in Italian and French
  • 3.Previous studies on the placement of OCLs in French and Italian
    • 3.1French
    • 3.2Italian
    • 3.3Cross-linguistic influence: unidirectional or bidirectional?
  • 4.Methodology
    • 4.1Participants
    • 4.2The elicitation task
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1General accuracy in the production of OCLs in French and Italian
    • 5.2Placement errors
  • 6.Summary and discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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