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Sentence comprehension in Hungarian-Russian bilingual and monolingual preschool children*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Csaba Pléh ,
Alexandr Jarovinskij  and
Alexandr Balajan
Csaba Pléh*
Affiliation:
Eötvös Lóránd University Budapest
Alexandr Jarovinskij
Affiliation:
Janus Pannonius University Pécs
Alexandr Balajan
Affiliation:
Pushkin Institute of Russian Language, Moscow
*
Department of General Psychology, Eötvös Lóránd University, Budapest, Izabella u. 46. 1064.Hungary.
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Abstract

This paper's authors examine the interpretation of transitive sentences with varying word orders /SVO, OVS, SOV, OSV/. The subjects were Hungarian-Russian bilingual preschool children and their Hungarian and Russian monolingual peers. Bever's ‘first noun as agent’ strategy – as indicated by OVS and OSV errors – appears to be weaker in the bilinguals. An explanation for this is proposed in terms of Slobin's ‘attention to the end of words’ factor. The mistaken identification of sentence-initial objects as agents depends on case marking allomorphy. Bilinguals, in general, appear to pay more attention to allomorphy and thus make fewer interpretation errors than their monolingual peers.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , October 1987 , pp. 587 - 603
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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Footnotes

*

Preparation of this paper was partially supported by Grant No. 242–084 to the first author by the Hungarian Ministry of Education. Comments concerning content and style by Farrel Ackermann are gratefully acknowledged.

References

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