What is it about?

Diglossia constrains morpho-syntactic variation within a language by positing that speakers handle two cognate, nevertheless separate grammars. This article examines a series of characteristics in French child data, i.e., subject and object pronouns, negation, and past-participle agreement, and argues for the subsequent emergence of two separate grammars.

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Why is it important?

How do speakers manage variation within their native language? How do children learn such variability? The examination of new child data sheds new light on these long-standing questions, and lends support to the existence and acquisition of separate grammatical constraints.

Perspectives

Further work is needed in order to transcribe and tag more data and examine additional grammatical characteristics.

Katerina Palasis
Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS, BCL, France

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This page is a summary of: The case for diglossia: Describing the emergence of two grammars in the early acquisition of metropolitan French, Journal of French Language Studies, January 2013, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1017/s0959269512000348.
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