Conjoined Clauses in L2 Acqusition?

[Lise Menn]

I don't know about L2, but my L1 diary data have some 'early'  
conjunctions (in fact, maybe they are subordinations) with pretty  
primitive clauses, I think because my subject was a late-ish talker  
with cognition way ahead of grammar. A prize example I have in my  
head from late in the 3rd year was uttered after a delivery man whom  
I had not see
had delivered a package:
     Hi man, not here now
i.e. "I said hi to the man; he's not here now".
     If you want more and more fully documented stuff, e-mail me back  
and I'll respond.
     Lise

On Aug 20, 2005, at 11:45 AM, Peyton Todd wrote:

> Hello all. Does anyone know of research on the tendency of children  
> of preschool age learning a second language in an 'immersion'  
> situation to attempt to conjoin clauses without waiting for the  
> grammar of their individual clauses to develop much past the one- 
> word stage? Apparently, children learning English as a first  
> language learn to conjoin clauses during their third year of life,  
> when the grammar of the indivdual clause is already well-developed.  
> My subject, a hearing child of deaf parents whose acquisition of  
> English began at age 3, freely conjoined 'clauses' (i.e. one-word  
> or two-word utterances expressing a clause) when the MLU of his  
> individual clauses was in the vicinity of 1.3 to 1.5 (depending on  
> how we define it).
>
> Note: By 'immersion' I do not mean total immersion, but only that  
> the exposure was e.g., free play, not structured as in a classroom  
> setting teaching the language.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Peyton Todd
>

Lise Menn                    Office: 303-492-1609
Linguistics Dept.        Fax 303-413-0017
295 UCB
University of Colorado
Boulder CO 80309-0295
lise.menn at colorado.edu