The acquisition of determiner phrase in early child Mandarin : A longitudinal study of two Mandarin speaking children

This text provides an authoritative account of the first language (L1) acquisition of Mandarin Determiner Phrase (DP), the first to utilize grammatical aspects of the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1995 among others) to explain the acquisition of nominal functional categories in early child Mandarin. The study is both theory and data driven, leading the reader step by step along the developmental pathway for Mandarin DP as exhibited by the two child subjects, one monolingual and the other a simultaneous Mandarin-English bilingual. Through the inclusion of detailed and extensive examples from the original corpora together with discussions and analysis, this book reveals unique and original insights into the L1 acquisition of a classifier language possessing a DP with more complex intervening internal structures. By careful comparison of both the bilingual and the monolingual DP acquisition patterns, the study reveals that simultaneous bilingual and monolingual children pursue the same developmental pathway during the course of development of Mandarin DP. It sheds light on fundamental issues in language acquisition such as the continuity debates and will be a valuable resource for students and practicing acquisition researchers alike