The Gen-CHILD Project

The Gen-CHILD Project is the first funded research project within CAT, for a two-year funding period which started 1 April 2010. The full title is:

Generative Childhood-Holistic Investigations of Language Development (Gen-CHILD):
Context Domain-Specific Socio-Syntax of First Language Acquisition in Cypriot Greek

Kleanthes Grohmann is the principal investigator of the Gen-CHILD Project, the external collaborator is Maria Kambanaros, and the project's principal research assistants are Lena Papadopoulou and Natalia Pavlou. Important roles will also be carried by the PhD students Sviatlana Karpava, Eleni Theodorou, Marina Varnava, and other CAT affiliates.

The CAT Output page lists all relevant publications and presentations by CAT members, with special emphasis on the Gen-CHILD Project. The final versions will be made available here shortly, with additional information.

Abstract

Gen-CHILD introduces a novel approach that will be spelled out through systematic investigations over the two-year period of the proposed project. Studying the syntax of first language development is to pay close attention to a child’s acquisition of the (morpho)syntactic properties of the mother-tongue — in the present case the Cypriot variety of Modern Greek (henceforth, Cypriot Greek).

However, the additional terms employed in the title lines refer to a new method for and novel reasoning underlying such investigations — non-existent in the generative-psycholinguistic research literature (but well-known from sociolinguistic and morphosyntactic research on dialects): environmentally defined domain-specificity, in particular in the context of schooling, and sociolinguistic variables, as well as the path of their acquisition throughout childhood relevant for choosing the right grammar, namely, syntax corresponding to the appropriate register. Teasing apart the title of the proposed research project from back to front, the primary goals of this project are to:

  1. prepare, carry out, and assess the first systematic study of the acquisition of Cypriot Greek morphosyntax by young Greek-Cypriot children ('language development'),
  2. taking into account sociolinguistic factors relevant for the syntactic forms used '‘socio-syntax'),
  3. primarily from the diglossic situation in Cyprus and the introduction of Standard Greek in the (pre-)school environment of children aged 5 years ('domain-specific').

We will look at the structure of clauses in the speech of 2- to 4-year-olds and compare the results with children that acquire the standard variety of Modern Greek (henceforth, Standard Greek) and children with language impairment or delay as well as an older group of 5- to 7-year-olds who are exposed to Standard Greek in (pre-)school environments. We expect to find different patterns during the acquisition course, in particular concerning the basic, unmarked word order, clitic placement, discourse markings, and wh-strategies, among others.