About pronoun gender errors

[Carmen Silva-Corvalan]

Dear all:

The following is an excerpt from a chapter on subject realization in English and Spanish by two normally developing bilinguals (Nico and Bren) (upcoming book is Bilingual Language Acquisition: Spanish and English in the first six years. CUP). These children did not make any gender errors, but they started using 3 person pronouns well into their 3rd year. Sensitivity to gender may have been helped by contact with Spanish, which marks gender on "everything". They both made the typical errors with 'me' as subject, though not frequently. I have only one example with "her" as subject, from Nico, who is an early acquirer and quite proficient in both languages. Notice mom's model and child's correction:

Mom:	Where’s she going? [a cousin]
N:	[her's leaving] 2;1.25
Mom:	Where’s she going?  [rising intonation]
N:	[Thrifty, she wants to buy stuff, shave for tío Nanno]

"In English, Nico starts using pronouns at 1;8.2 in the utterance I get it (playing with a ball with an adult). The 94 overt pronouns in his English include: I (64 cases); it in the item it’s (21 cases); you (1 in the routine How are you?, and 6 in the frame What (are) you V-ing?); and 2 cases of he. These alternate with 8 unexpressed pronouns: I (4), it (3), and you (1). Only three different frames for the use of Iare recorded in Nico’s data throughout the 20th month: I get it, I don’t like it, and I want X. Bren starts using the first singular pronoun I at 1;10. This is the only pronoun he uses during the early age period: 11 examples in the frame I want (it) X, 3 cases of I did it, and 1 in the routine I coming! (with a null auxiliary). Of the 10 cases of null subject in Bren’s English only one is in the context of a second person singular; all other null subjects correspond to I with a missing auxiliary (e.g., No like it, All done). Shared knowledge with the surrounding 
adults, and the physical and discourse context make up for the children's initial stage of subject omission."

I have not yet listed further dates for English pronouns. For what may be worth, here's information about the Spanish pronouns:
AGE Pros (first appearance)
BREN	
1;11	yo 	
2;3 	tú		
2;4	él (1 token)
2;6-2;11: several tú and él
NO other pronouns.

FOR NICO:
2;3: yo 
2;4: tú, él
2;5-2;11: several tú and él
2;9: nosotros (1 token)

"Ella" 'she' does not appear to age 2;10. The boys don't have a sister and they refer to mom and other females by name.

Carmen Silva-Corvalán

__________________________________
Professor
University of Southern California


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