Cross-linguistic influences on first language acquisition of olutachoni lexicon
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Date
2016-06
Authors
Mandillah, Lucy K. L.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
The study sought to identify lexical borrowing and describe the nature of lexical
borrowing among the 2-7 year old children acquiring Olutachoni as their first language.
The study also investigated and established the correlations between the age and gender
of the children and the degree of lexical borrowing. The role of the linguistic
environment to the acquisition of Olutachoni as a L1 was also investigated. The Usage-
Based Acquisition Theory, Levelt’s Theory of Speech Production and the Unitary
Language System Hypothesis were used to explain the role of the external and the
internal mechanisms behind language acquisition. For a comparative analysis, data was
collected from children in the mixed language family set up (Olutachoni-Olubukusu)
and the single language family set up (Olutachoni-Olutachoni). This was meant to
establish if cross linguistic influences from the mothers’ language (in this case
Olubukusu) had any influence on the acquisition of Olutachoni. The study adopted a
time-lag strategy design and a triangulation approach to collect and analyze data.
Twelve children were purposively sampled from twelve homes through the social
network approach. Unstructured interviews and observation schedules were used to
collect and audio- record utterances from the 12 children. A contrastive and
comparative analysis of the cases of lexical borrowing from the mixed language family
set up and the single language family set up was done. Spearman’s Rank Correlation
Coefficient was used to measure the relationship between the age and gender of the
children and the degree of lexical borrowing. The results were presented in the form of
frequency tables and figures which were followed with explanations. The findings of
the study revealed that there were cases of cross linguistic influences from Olubukusu
and Kiswahili among the 2-7 year old children acquiring Olutachoni as a First language.
The two main strategies of lexical borrowing which were manifested among the
children were lexical inventions and lexical importation. The influences occurred
among the children from both the mixed and the single language family set ups
although at varying degrees. Lexical importation was manifested through loan words
and loan adaptation strategies whereas prefixation was employed as the main word
formation process during lexical invention. Children from the mixed language family
set up recorded a higher percentage of lexical borrowing compared to those from the
single language family set up. There was a strong negative correlation between the age
and gender of the children and the degree of lexical borrowing. Also, the linguistic
environment had an effect on the production of lexical borrowing during child language
acquisition. It was recommended that other cross linguistic influence studies in other
African languages be conducted in order to promote the development and use of
indigenous languages as per Chapter 2 section 7(3b) of the 2010 Kenyan Constitution.
Furthemore, parents, teachers and psychologists should view lexical borrowing arising
from CLIs as a strategy towards language learning but not as forms of interference
Description
A thesis submitted to the school of humanities and social sciences in fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English Language and Applied Linguistics, Kenyatta University. June, 2016