This book addresses how cross-linguistic interference is represented in the bilingual mind. Examining novel oral production data from older bilingual children representing two uechua varieties, this research concludes that interference in the feature specification of functional categories leads to language change in a language contact situation, and links convergence, a common set of feature values for the same functional category in both languages to the activation of features related to the informational structure of the sentence. These mechanisms are illustrated in detail by the presence of overt determiners, canonical SVO word order and the absence of accusative marking in bilingual uechua and by neutralization of case and gender distinctions in direct object pronouns as well as in the emergence of null pronouns with definite antecedents in bilingual Spanish.

Table of contents

Acknowledgements ix–x 1. The acquisition of functional categories in bilinguals 1–16 2. The direct object system of uechua and Spanish 17–64 3. Bilinguals in a language contact situation 65–84 4. A turtle is looking at a toad: Functional interference and convergence in bilingual uechua 85–113 5. The frog is looking at Phi-features: Functional convergence in bilingual Spanish 115–153 6. Conclusions 155–158 Appendix 159–175 Bibliography 177–184 Index 185–187