Use of Formulaic Language by a Japanese-English Bilingual Child:
A Practical Approach to Data Analysis
Alison Wray, Cardiff University, U.K.
Kazuhiko Namba, Cardiff University, U.K.
Formulaic language is increasingly recognized as a significant feature in the speech of the bilingual child, and it has been suggested that it may offer insights into the processes of acquisition and language management. However, it is notoriously difficult to identify in real text. To address this problem, this paper begins by introducing eleven criteria which can be used by the researcher to support judgements wbout whether a particular wordstring is likely to be formulaic. These criteria are then applied to a rich database of language from a Japanese-English bilingual child. Finally, the examples so identified are used to illustrate some of the functions of formulaic language that are predicted by a recent theory of language processing in interaction.
