Cross-linguistic influence in French-English bilingual children's possessive constructions

The purpose of this article was to test the predictions of a speech production model of cross-linguistic influence in French-English bilingual children. A speech production model predicts bidirectional influence (i.e., bilinguals' greater use of periphrastic constructions like the hat of the dog relative to monolinguals in English and reversed possessive constructions like *chien chapeau to refer to a dog's hat). In contrast, other explanations predict unidirectional influence from French to English. Possessive constructions were elicited from preschool French-English bilingual children as well as preschool French and English monolinguals within the same age range. The results showed bidirectional influence, consistent with a speech production model.