Effects of Shared Word Order on Intrasentential Language Mixing in English-Dutch, Polish-Dutch, and Turkish-Dutch Bilingual Children

Abstract

Bilingual children commonly mix languages. Their language mixing generally adheres to grammatical constraints, yet it may impose processing and production costs. This study examined how 4-to-7-year-old English-, Polish-, and Turkish-Dutch bilingual children processed and repeated mixed-language sentences. It aimed to (a) determine whether they struggle with mixed-language sentences, (b) study whether shared word order in either the main or subordinate clause facilitates repetition, (c) compare the effects of different types of mixing, i.e., insertion and alternation, and (d) link error rates to daily mixing experience. Fifty-seven children participated in a mixed sentence repetition task. Mixed Dutch sentences with embedded elements from other languages in the task enable the examination of the role of clause and mixing type across four types of sentences: (1) main clause insertion, (2) subordinate clause insertion, (3) main clause alternation, and (4) subordinate clause alternation. In addition, monolingual Dutch sentences with main and subordinate clauses allow investigation of the effects of processing mixed sentences. The results of the generalized linear mixed-effects models with error rates as the outcome variable suggest that mixing may play a limited role. We also found no evidence of a relation between task performance and daily mixing experience. These results provide no support for processing and production costs associated with language mixing. We discuss these results in light of theories on language mixing, previous research and methodological considerations.