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In:Processability and Language Acquisition in the Asia-Pacific Region
Edited by Satomi Kawaguchi, Bruno Di Biase and Yumiko Yamaguchi
[Processability Approaches to Language Acquisition Research & Teaching 9] 2023
► pp. 165–191

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Chapter 7
The bilingual development of plural marking in a Malay-English child

 | International Islamic University Malaysia
 | Western Sydney University
 | Western Sydney University
Published online: 2 February 2023
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https://doi.org/10.1075/palart.9.07moh
Abstract
This study investigates the development of plural encoding in a Malay-English bilingual first language acquirer from a Processability Theory (PT) perspective. In Malay, plurality is encoded through reduplication, while English uses morphological inflection. The child’s oral production was collected weekly from age 3;4 to 3;10 using natural conversation and elicitation tasks in separate Malay and English sessions. Expressions for singular and plural contexts are analysed based on PT. Results suggest that pluralisation in each language followed PT, they add to the applicability of PT to bilingual first language acquisition (BFLA), and reveal some novel typological sequences. Cross-linguistic influences were found in plural encodings in each language. Also, a prosodic feature was, usefully, found to disambiguate between Malay ‘iteration’ (Lemma) and ‘reduplication’ (Category procedure).
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Plural expressions in English and Malay
  • 3.The acquisition of plurality in First Language Acquisition (FLA) and Bilingual First Language Acquisition (BFLA) studies
  • 4.Acquisition of plurality based on Processability Theory
  • 5.PT-based hypothesis for English and Malay plural development
    • 5.1Method
    • 5.2Data collection
    • 5.3Data analysis
  • 6.Results and discussion
    • i.Malay Lemma/word level
    • ii.Malay Category(Lexical) procedure
    • iii.Malay Phrasal procedure
    • i.English Lemma/Word level
    • ii.English Category(Lexical) procedure
    • iii.English Phrasal procedure
  • 7.Conclusion
  • References
References (71)
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