Constructing language: evidence from a French-English bilingual child

This paper presents evidence from a French-English bilingual child between the ages of two years three months and three years five months, growing up bilingually from birth, with a French mother and English father in an English speaking environment. In focussing upon questions in the child's two languages, and charting in some detail the emergence of particular structures, it is argued that the data support a growing body of evidence that young children learn language in a piecemeal, item-by-item fashion. Furthermore, analysis of the questions in the parents' two languages suggests that the input also has an important role to play. The implications of these findings are considered with regard to the training of professionals working in early years settings.