New book on child Singapore Malay

[Madalena Cruz-Ferreira]

Dear all,

 

It is my great pleasure to announce the publication of a brand-new book on syntactic acquisition of Singapore Malay. Norhaida Aman, the author, is a researcher at the NIE (National Institute of Education, Singapore).

The reference is:

Aman, N. (2006). The Acquisition of Malay Wh-Questions, Lincom GmbH.

The book's abstract is below my signature.

 

With best wishes

 
Madalena
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Madalena Cruz-Ferreira 
Dept. English Language and Literature 
National University of Singapore 
ellmcf at nus.edu.sg 
http://profile.nus.edu.sg/fass/ellmcf/ <https://exchange.nus.edu.sg/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=https://exchange.nus.edu.sg/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://profile.nus.edu.sg/fass/ellmcf/>  
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Aman, N. (2006). The Acquisition of Malay Wh-Questions, Lincom GmbH.

Abstract.

The purpose of this study is to provide an account of children's 
acquisition of wh-questions in the variety of Malay spoken in Singapore. 
The work examines how children acquire colloquial Malay, the language to 
which they are exposed at home and in the speech community before they are 
taught the standard, formal language in school. It is intended to be a 
contribution to the study of how children acquire typologically distinct 
language. In addition, it is a contribution to the examination of the 
grammar of colloquial Malay, a topic which has not been given much 
attention in studies of the Malay language. The following issues are 
examined: children's knowledge of the different options for asking simple 
questions (wh-in situ, questions employing wh-movement and focus 
questions), their knowledge of these question types in long-distance 
questions, and the role of island constraints in the syntax of these 
question types in the Malay of young children. The study uses two 
experimental methodologies; a comprehension task (the picture-story method) 
and a production task (elicited imitation). It is also based on a 
longitudinal spontaneous production study of two Malay-speaking children. 
In addition to its descriptive value, the thesis is of theoretical 
interest. According to the innateness hypothesis, children have a 
biologically determined knowledge of Universal Grammar, and universals like 
the island constraints on movement are respected by all languages. Contrary to 
these expectations, the empirical evidence discussed in this thesis shows that 
Malay-speaking children, ages 4;5-6;5, appear not to respect island constraints 
on wh-movement. A careful analysis of the results, however, shows that this 
seeming challenge to Universal Grammar is more apparent than real, and that the 
island violations are the result of a processing effect in which in situ wh-questions, 
which are not subject to islands, prime the responses for the fully moved questions.

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