Linguistic cues and the number word acquisition in a multilingual context

• Main Author: Maxilom, Rowanne Marie R.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2008
• Subjects: Multilingual persons; Linguistics; Multilingualism; Bilingualism in children; Language acquisition
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_doctoral/229; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etd_doctoral/article/1228/viewcontent/CDTG004511_P.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study investigated the language codes used by the multilingual children and their mothers in uttering number words and the role of linguistic cues in the childrens acquisition of number word meanings. The study further inquired into the possible variation in the role of linguistic cues in number word acquisition across languages such as Cebuano, English, and Filipino. The participants of this study were twelve Cebuano-English-Filipino multilingual children aged 1.5 3 years old and their mothers. The mother-child dyads spontaneous interactions during bathing, dressing, feeding, playing, and reading were recorded for five hours (non-continuous). This study hypothesized that linguistic cues play a significant role in the childrens acquisition of number word meanings. Specifically, the hypotheses stated that number words were used with count nouns, did not appear with intensifiers, preceded an adjective, and were used in the partitive constructions. To test the variation in the role of linguistic cues, this study hypothesized that number words in Cebuano, English, and Filipino were only used with count nouns, did not appear with intensifiers, preceded an adjective, and were rarely used in the partitive constructions. Chi-square statistical analyses were used to test whether there was a significant difference between the proportions of number words with count nouns and the proportions of massable quantifiers with count nouns, between the proportions of number words with intensifiers and the proportions of modifiable quantifiers with intensifiers, between the proportions of number words that preceded an adjective and the adjectives that preceded another adjective, and between the proportions of number words that were iii used in the partitive construction and the proportions of adjectives that were used in the partitive construction. Results revealed that the mothers and their children preferred to use the English code frequently in uttering number words. They also used the other language codes such as Cebuano, Filipino, and Spanish but not as frequently as the English code. The results also showed that linguistic cues play a significant role in the childrens acquisition of number words. Specifically, here are the following results: 1) number words were used with count nouns, 2) number words did not appear with intensifiers, 3) number words preceded an adjective, and 4) number words and quantifiers were used in the partitive constructions. Also, the role of linguistic cues varied across languages. Specifically, here are the following variations: 1) number words in Cebuano, English, and Filipino were only used with count nouns, 2) number words in Cebuano, English, and Filipino did not appear with intensifiers 3) number words in English and Filipino preceded an adjective. However, no data were found in Cebuano data that showed that number words preceded an adjective, and 4) number words and quantifiers in English were rarely used in the partitive construction. However, the Cebuano data and the Filipino data did not show that number words and quantifiers were used in the partitive constructions.