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The Impact of Input on Acquisition of Irish As a First Language

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The Impact of Input on Acquisition of Irish As a First Language Investigating the later stages of Irish acquisition Iniúchadh ar shealbhú níos déanaí na Gaeilge Siobhán Nic Fhlannchadha 08633631 This thesis is submitted to University College Dublin in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Psychology College of Social Sciences and Law Head of School: Dr. Suzanne Guerin Principal Supervisor: Dr. Tina Hickey Chair of Doctoral Studies Panel: Dr. Eilis Hennessy Member of Doctoral Studies Panel: Prof. Aidan Moran February 2016 Table of Contents Abstract Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................................. ii Abstract .......................................................................................................................................................... vi List of Abbreviations ...................................................................................................................................... vii List of Tables ................................................................................................................................................. viii List of Figures .................................................................................................................................................. xi Statement of Original Authorship ................................................................................................................. xiii Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................................... xiv Chapter 1 Input and experience in later first language and bilingual acquisition ............................................. 1 Overview of the thesis ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Overview of the chapter .................................................................................................................................. 2 Crosslinguistic Research ............................................................................................................................... 2 The constructivist approach......................................................................................................................... 3 Distributional learning: Schematisation .................................................................................................. 4 Complexity ............................................................................................................................................... 5 Summary of Constructivist approach .................................................................................................... 11 Quantitative and qualitative differences in input: ......................................................................................... 11 Bilinguals’ Language experience .................................................................................................................... 11 Crosslinguistic influence within bilinguals ............................................................................................ 15 Timing of bilingual acquisition ............................................................................................................... 18 Child level factors in acquisition ................................................................................................................ 21 Language input environment in the home ............................................................................................ 21 Heritage speakers ...................................................................................................................................... 24 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................. 27 Aims of the research ...................................................................................................................................... 28 Chapter 2 Acquiring grammatical gender and the Irish gender system .......................................................... 31 Overview of the chapter .......................................................................................................................... 31 Gender assignment ................................................................................................................................... 31 Gender assignment in Irish ........................................................................................................................ 32 Marking grammatical gender ..................................................................................................................... 34 Marking grammatical gender in Irish .................................................................................................... 34 Contexts of use ....................................................................................................................................... 35 Changes in the Irish grammatical gender system ................................................................................. 39 Acquisition of grammatical gender ....................................................................................................... 40 Semantically Motivated Theories of Gender Acquisition ........................................................................... 41 Phonological/Morphologically Driven Acquisition of grammatical gender ................................................ 42 Complexity as a predictor of rate of acquisition ........................................................................................ 44 Cues to grammatical gender .................................................................................................................. 46 Function as a predictor of ease of acquisition ............................................................................................ 48 The influence of language experience and patterns in the input ............................................................... 49 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................. 53 Chapter 3 The sociolinguistic context: ............................................................................................................ 55 Irish in the Gaeltacht and in education .......................................................................................................... 55 Overview of the chapter .......................................................................................................................... 55 The Irish Language .................................................................................................................................... 55 Varieties of Irish and the Standard ............................................................................................................ 56 Acquiring a minority language in a bilingual context ....................................................................... 57 Irish in the Gaeltacht ............................................................................................................................... 58 Demographics ............................................................................................................................................ 58 Language dynamics and the Gaeltacht ...................................................................................................... 61 State Support for Irish and the Gaeltacht .................................................................................................. 61 Language ownership and authority ...................................................................................................... 64 Irish and social class ............................................................................................................................... 66 Irish in the education system ................................................................................................................. 67 Gaeltacht schools ...................................................................................................................................... 68 Gaeltacht children’s achievement in Irish .................................................................................................. 70 ii Gaelscoileanna .......................................................................................................................................... 74 Children’s achievement in Irish in Gaelscoileanna ..................................................................................... 74 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................. 77 Chapter 4 Child and adult measures .............................................................................................................. 78 Overview of the Chapter ......................................................................................................................... 78 Background measures .............................................................................................................................. 78 The
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