Apologies for cross-posting. Some of you may be interested in this.
Jane*
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From: Suen Caesar LUN <[log in to unmask]>
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
Date: Fri, 02 May 2003 11:54:56 +0800
From: Brian MacWhinney <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Kathryn corpus
Dear Info-CHILDES,
I am happy to announce the arrival of the third installment of the
Yip-Matthews corpus on three Cantonese-English children in Hong Kong.
This new corpus, the Kathryn corpus, has a full set of files in both
primarily English and primarily Cantonese linked to the audio. These
files are at http://childes.psy.cmu.edu/media/audlink
The full documentation for this fascinating new data set is given
here. Many thanks to Virginia Yip, Huang Yue Yuan, and Steven
Matthews for this contribution.
--Brian MacWhinney
The Hong Kong Bilingual Child Language Corpus: Longitudinal data for
Kathryn (3;06.18-4;06.07)
Virginia Yip, Stephen Matthews and Huang Yue Yuan
Chinese University of Hong Kong, University of Hong Kong & Hong Kong
Baptist University
The corpus of Kathryné¶ bilingual development constitutes the third
installment of the Hong Kong Bilingual Child Language Corpus. Kathryn
was born in Hong Kong on January 23, 1992. Her siblings are James
(four years and eight months older) and Alasdair (one year and nine
months older), who also feature in the recordings occasionally. Her
father, a neuro-surgeon at a university hospital, is a native speaker
of Cantonese and her mother of British English. The mother, a
housewife at the time of study, was the principal caregiver. The
family employed a Filipina domestic helper for a brief period until
Kathryn was around age 3, and subsequently a part-time Cantonese
cleaner who also spoke fluent English.
Kathryn attended the Cantonese section of an international
Kindergarten from 2;07. According to her motheré¶ observations this
set her subsequent pattern of language use: with her friends mostly
Cantonese-speaking. In April 2003 Kathryn is now eleven years old and
she was reported to use more Cantonese as the language of social
interaction, while English is the language for academic settings.
Audio recording was conducted by two research assistants in
each recording session, one responsible for each language, from 15
November 1994 (2;09.23) to 30 July 1996 (4;06.07) on a bi-weekly
basis. The data initially released total 26 files (13 in each
language) on a monthly basis from 3;06.18--4;06.07. In each recording
session one research assistant interacted with the child for
approximately half an hour in English and the other for half an hour
in Cantonese.
Of the five Cantonese-English bilingual children studied to
date, Kathryn shows the most balanced pattern of development, with
relatively little evidence of language dominance or concomitant
transfer compared to the siblings, Timmy and Sophie who show dominance
in Cantonese over English.
A perhaps unintentionally funny remark:
Ngo5 de1di4 hai6 zing2 tau4 gaa3 (3;11;27) file Kc960119
My daddy is do head PRT
?My daddy fixes heads.?
In Cantonese this would normally denote a hairdresser, but
here describes her fatheré¶ work as a neurosurgeon. Photographs of
Kathryn from infancy to primary school can be viewed at
http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/ils/home/kathryn.htm
All the transcripts released in this corpus are linked to
the audio files. One can read the transcript while listening to the
interaction between the child and the research assistants.
Acknowledgments
Investigation of Kathryn's bilingual development was undertaken as
part of the project "The Development of Bilingual Competence in Hong
Kong Children" funded by the Research Grants Council (RGC ref. no. HKU
336/94H) and subsequently funded by the project "A Cantonese-English
Bilingual Child Language Corpus" (RGC ref. no. CUHK4002/97H) and the
current project "Multimedia Perspectives on Bilingual Development".
(CUHK 4014/02H) The recording of Kathryn could not have been so
successful and enjoyable without the generous support of her parents
and siblings. We are especially indebted to Kathryné¶ mother Gillian
for all the help she rendered over the years of our investigation. We
also gratefully acknowledge the support and help of the colleagues and
students who have been friends and supporters of
our work over the years. Among them, special thanks are due to Winnie
Chan, Linda Peng Ling Ling, Bella Leung, Lawrence Cheung, Gene Chu,
Betty Chan, Chen Ee San, Michelle Li, Emily Ma, Uta Lam, Richard Wong
and Angel Chan: a dedicated team who became part of the family and
friends of the children. We thank Mary MacWhinney for digitizing a
substantial portion of Kathryné¶ tapes for us in Spring 2001. Brian
MacWhinney's impressive technical know-how and practical tips have
greatly facilitated the completion of the corpus and production of the
entire audio-linked corpus. His input during and after his sabbatical
in Hong Kong in 2000-2001 has made all the difference to every aspect
of the corpus.
Publications based on the Hong Kong Bilingual Child Language
Corpus:
Matthews, S. & V. Yip. 2003. Relative clauses in early
bilingual development: transfer and universals. In Giacalone, A. (ed.)
Typology and Second Language Acquisition, pp.39-81. Berlin and New
York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Yip, V. 2002. "Early syntactic development in
Cantonese-English bilingual children." Keynote speech delivered at the
9th International Symposium on Contemporary Linguistics in China,
organized by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Beijing
Foreign Studies University, PRC.
Yip, V. (To appear). "Early syntactic development in
Cantonese-English bilingual children." Contemporary Linguistics.
Yip, V. (To appear). "Early bilingual development in the
Chinese context." In Li P., L-H .Tan, E. Bates & Tzeng, O. (eds.)
Handbook of East Asian Psycholinguistics (Vol.1). Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Yip, V. and Matthews, S. "Syntactic transfer in a
Cantonese-English bilingual child." Bilingualism: Language and
Cognition 3.3, 193-208.
For this release, there is a total of 26 files, half in
Cantonese and half in English and there are two files for the same
date since they were recorded on the same day. The file name is made
up of Kathryn's initial K, followed by the initial that stands for the
language, either c for Cantonese or e for English, followed by the
year, month and date of recording, e.g. Kc951020 refers to the
Cantonese file containing the recording made in the year 1995, October
20 and Ke951020 refers to the English file for the recording made on
the same date. Thus each of the 26 files has a unique file name.
Inventory of Kathryné¶ files
File no. File name File no. File name Age of Child
1 Kc950810 14 Ke950810 3;06.18
2 Kc950905 15 Ke950905 3;07.13
3 Kc951020 16 Ke951020 3;08.27
4 Kc951117 17 Ke951117 3;09.25
5 Kc951220 18 Ke951220 3;10.27
6 Kc960119 19 Ke960119 3;11.27
7 Kc960207 20 Ke960207 4;00.15
8 Kc960304 21 Ke960304 4;01.09
9 Kc960409 22 Ke960409 4;02.17
10 Kc960508 23 Ke960508 4;03.15
11 Kc960621 24 Ke960621 4;04.29
12 Kc960703 25 Ke960703 4;05.10
13 Kc960730 26 Ke960730 4;06.07
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