NIMISÕNAFRAAS EESTI-NORRA KAKSKEELSETE LASTE KEELEKASUTUSES
THE NOUN PHRASE AS USED BY BILINGUAL ESTONIAN-NORWEGIAN CHILDREN

Summary/Abstract: A prominent factor affecting the language use of bilinguals is cross-linguistic influence. This study presents a preliminary descriptive overview of the morphosyntax of the noun phrase as used by bilingual Estonian-Norwegian children. Participants in the study included eight bilingual children aged 5–8, five Estonian and five Norwegian monolingual children aged 5–7. The monolingual groups were included for comparison, in order to produce a more complete picture of what is specific to the bilingual children. A narrative elicitation paradigm was used in both languages: the children retold a story based on Mayer’s (1969) picture book, and a free narrative was elicited with questions about the children’s daily life. The qualitative analysis revealed characteristic patterns in the bilinguals’ narratives in both languages. Several of the patterns could be explained by cross-linguistic influence. In Estonian, several bilingual children used the determiners üks ‘one’ and see ‘this’ as articles, and in Norwegian, bilingual children tended to overuse indefinite forms. Some further patterns were also identified that can be explained by the structure of Estonian and Norwegian respectively, and that have been observed in the language use of monolingual children. The results of this study provide a starting point for future studies taking a closer look at the roles of cross-lingustic influence and language input.

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