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Processering af syntaktiske informationer i simple grammatiske sætninger hos et- og osprogede børn og voksne - et tværsprogligt eksperiment i dansk og kroatisk

In this cross-linguistic study language processing and cue strength or the degree of their interaction is described from the Competition Model (Bates & MacWhinney, 1989) among monolingual Danish, monolingual Croatian, bilingual Danish-Croatian children and adults respectively from Denmark and Croatia. The model has a functionalistic constraint-based approach to language acquisition. Language acquisition is from the model a dynamic process and has a functional purpose, where its aspects are acquired in interaction with its environments. The model stresses the role that input has for a successful language development. Analysis of data respectively from Danish and Croatian children and adults is made by observing the same three independent variables: word order, animate and real world knowledge (RWK) in identification of the agent in interpretation of simple grammatical sentences. The sentences are made from an orthogonal design. The analysis of the data is separated into three parts, which have given the opportunity to map cue strength and validity within both the individual language and across the languages by children and adults. The experiment is carried out in real time (on-line technique), which simulates the processing of language as closely as possible to every-day situations, that is automatically, unconscious and fast, and gives a more objective pattern of which linguistic cues children and adults emphasize highly when deciding agent in simple grammatical sentences. The analysis of data did not give a one-sided pattern of cue strength in the two languages in the groups respectively. The results of the experiment from the monolingual Danish, Croatian and bilingual Danish-Croatian children show that the order of precedence for cue strength in Danish for understanding simple grammatical sentences is: word order > animacy > RWK, whereas the order of precedence for cue strength in the Croatian language is: case > animacy > RWK > word order. In this connection it is interesting that bilingual children use the same cues as monolingual Danish children in interpretation of the mother tongue (L1) that is a sort of “inverted transfer”. The results of the experiment from the monolingual Danish children and adults give two different orders of precedence for cue strength in the Danish language because the semantic-pragmatic structure in the linguistic input has an influence on cue strength: a) word order > animacy > RWK (for interpretation of canonical /NVN/ sentences) b) animacy > RWK > word order (for interpretation of non-canonical /NNV/ sentences) The results of the experiment from the monolingual Croatian children and adults show that the syntactic structure in the input has influence on the order of precedence for cue strength in the Croatian language and confirm the previous findings about cue precedence (Mimica, 1987, 1988 ; Kuvač Kraljević, 2008). From the cues used in the experiment cue strength is: case > animacy > RWK > word order. The results of the reaction time (RT) show that the grammatical complexity in the individual language has influence on the processing of the language input, which especially is expressed in the non-canonical sentences in the Croatian language, but this complexity also leads to more precise syntactical information about the agent role. This functionalistic analysis of languages shows that the processing of linguistic information is an interactive process, and that grammatical aspects are not reserved for abstract terms, but that their interaction cannot be observed and operationalised until they are put into competition. In Danish research of bilingualism this master thesis is essential. The results as well as the method have given new knowledge of the languages through syntactic analyses, typographical descriptions and the role that input has for language acquisition, often limited to theoretical and some times political assertions about negative effects of bilingualism by minority groups. As such the results are relevant not only to language acquisition but also to development in general. The basic thesis and methodological approach inspires and leads to alterations in the above mentioned tendencies that can have decisive importance to future psychological and pedagogical views on mother tongues and alterations in practice about minority languages in Denmark. Thus the importance of the functionalistic approach and the communicative functions are underlined.

Competition Model; syntaktiske cues; semantiske cues; tosprogethed

nije evidentirano