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The Issue of Grammaticalization in Early German Second Language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2008

Carol W. Pfaff
Carol W. Pfaff
Affiliation:
Freie Universität Berlin
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Abstract

This paper treats the development of the expression of grammatical categories in German in the early second language acquisition of Turkish and German children attending a bilingual day-care center in a multilingual speech community in Berlin. We examine case and gender marking on noun phrases and pronouns and tense/aspect and agreement marking on verb phrases. These are examined in light of the following general issues: (a) Do grammatical markers develop from independent lexical items in child language as well as in diachronic development? (b) Do the markers initially mark pragmatic categories before being grammaticalized as syntactic functors? (c) Do grammaticalizations of the first language influence the development of the second language?

We find no evidence that pragmatic precede syntactic categories; however, some evidence indicates that grammatical markers develop first as independent words—for example, pronominal use preceding definite article use of der, die, das, and main verb use preceding auxiliary use of sein (‘be’) and haben (‘have’). Some evidence that the categories of the first language (Turkish) play a role in the development of German second language is found in compound verb constructions.

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Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , September 1992 , pp. 273 - 296
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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