Bilingual Competence and Bilingual Proficiency in Child Development

Appendix 3: Early Childhood Borrowing and Codeswitching

Appendix 3: Early Childhood Borrowing and Codeswitching The following transcription of mixed English-Spanish utterances by a bilingual child (“Elizabeth”), recorded sporadically from age 2 years 2 months (2;2) through 4 years 11 months (4;11) is offered here as a corpus for further analysis. Students of early childhood codeswitching should find it interesting for the patterns that might be revealed. The total expressive vocabulary at age 1;9 is also included as a beginning reference point. The sample is relatively small, with obvious gaps in the record (these clearly do not indicate a diminution in mixing during these months; rather, they derive from a lapse in annotations by Elizabeth’s parents). However, the sample does represent the complete and unselected available data during this period of early bilingual development. Background Information Elizabeth is representative of nonbalanced bilingual development, typical of many young immigrants to the United States from Spanish-speaking countries (in this case at age 2;5). Despite greater total exposure to Spanish (in quantitative terms) through at least age 3 (including television) in her bilingual home, English rapidly becomes the dominant primary language in all respects. English language development is normal at all stages from age 3 on, while expressive abilities in Spanish unambiguously and unmistakably indicate nonnative grammatical competence (confirmed subsequently in middle childhood). See chapter 6 for discussion and similar case study reports. From a cursory examination of the mixing patterns—in particular, the predominance of English as the matrix language from an early stage—one is tempted to propose (with the benefit of hindsight) a similarly early divergence/imbalance in which only one language begins to take on the status of a fully formed primary-L1. Not revealing itself clearly in either monolingual La or Lb utterances, this kind of emerging imbalance might be indicated much sooner by early mixing patterns. Cross-linguistic influence is not without its effects in the opposite direction (from the developing nondominant language to the developing dominant primary-L1), as 296 Appendix 3 evidenced occasionally in what appear to be possible “loan translations”; examples are shown below. I leave these assessments, highly speculative as they are, open to other interpretations. Total Expressive Vocabulary—Age 1;9 Spanish nena mamá papá abui agua otro ven éste popó tú yo e-gangan má[s] English nose boo[k] mo[re] bau [ball] chee[se] ca[r] Indeterminate no [a]way -or- [f]ue Mixed Utterances Subsequent to Onset of Two-Word Stage Age 2;2 Come pan, b[r]ead. [Eats bread, bread.] Dos doggie. [Two doggie.] Early Childhood Borrowing and Codeswitching 297 Otro flower. [Other flower.] A [s]nake, otro. [A snake, other.] Off this, feo. [Off this, ugly.] This pone. [This put.] Mami bobo, here. [Mami balloon, here.] (“bobo” = “globo”) A [s]nake come, careful. [A snake eats, careful.] A [s]nake, a [s]nake come lelephant. [A snake, a snake, eats elephant.] [S]nake come me. [Snake eats me.] Age 2;3 Mira, todos sleep. [Look, everyone sleep] This, todo. [This, all (of it).] Otro slide, big one, round and round and round. [Other slide, big one, round and round and round.] Azul ball, azul ball. [Blue ball, blue ball.] Muchos leaves, todos leaves. [Many leaves, all leaves.] Catch the ball Big Bird; no there, arriba. [Catch the ball Big Bird; no there, up (there).] Wet, pelo wet. [Wet, hair wet.] Vamos a copies. [Let’s go to copies (the copy store).] Casa far away? [House far away?] 298 Appendix 3 Here ya go, ten, una más, there todos, there. [Here you go, here (directive, imperative form of verb “tener” = to have), one more, there all (of them), there.] Come; good? [Eat (directive to doll); good?] Age 2;4 Así, eso, a little bit. [In this way, right, a little bit.] Muchos frogs. [Many frogs.] Ojo, otro eye, mouth, otro man eye, ojo. [Eye, other eye, mouth, other man eye, eye.] No water, agua, water, agua, Mami. [No water, water, water, water, Mami.] Age 2;5 This azul; Yani like blue. [This blue; Yani like blue.] Vamos outside. [Let’s go outside.] No vayas, close the door. [Don’t go, close the door.] Me buy chita. [Me buy milk.] (“chita” = “lechita,” diminutive of “leche”) Otro me hand. [Other me hand.] Find the queso. [Find the cheese.] Titas de agua in the baby tree. [Little drops of water in the baby tree...