The case for diglossia: Describing the emergence of two grammars in the early acquisition of metropolitan French

This article supports the diglossic approach to variation in metropolitan French by delving into the subject from the point of view of acquisition. Drawing on naturalistic data from 37 native French children between the ages of 2;3 and 4;0, the investigation exemplifies the existence of two cognate,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of French language studies Vol. 23; no. 1; pp. 17 - 35
Main Author PALASIS, KATERINA
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.03.2013
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
SeriesL'hypothèse d'une diglossie en France
Subjects
Brain
Children
Clitics
Cognitive science
Diglossia
French language
Function words
Grammar
Humanities and Social Sciences
Language acquisition
Linguistics
Native language acquisition
Spontaneous speech
Syntax
subject clitics
syntax
negation
French
diglossia
acquisition
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Summary:This article supports the diglossic approach to variation in metropolitan French by delving into the subject from the point of view of acquisition. Drawing on naturalistic data from 37 native French children between the ages of 2;3 and 4;0, the investigation exemplifies the existence of two cognate, but distinct grammars in the mind/brain of these children. The distinction between Spontaneous French (G1, all children) and Normed French (G2, 4 children by age 4) hinges upon two crucial characteristics, i.e. the morpho-syntactic status of nominative clitics and the emergence of the negative particle ne. Accusative clitics with imperatives and past-participle agreement are also examined in order to gain a comprehensive picture of the two grammars. Finally, the emergence of ne is interpreted as a trigger forcing a speaker to move from G1 to G2 due to the total unavailability of ne in G1.
ISSN:0959-2695
1474-0079
DOI:10.1017/S0959269512000348