The book describes the factors influencing the maintenance of Polish by the second generation of emigrants in Sweden. It indicates the systemic mechanisms governing the acquisition of Polish by a child in a bilingual setting. Particular attention is given to the acquisition of the category of case.

The monograph, based on broad studies into the Polish diaspora in Sweden, provides a picture of the social factors influencing the maintenance of the heritage language and culture by the second generation of emigrants. The author's main objective, however, is to discover the systemic mechanisms underlying language acquisition by children in a bilingual setting and to investigate the influence of the interference from the dominant language on the acquisition of Polish. A particular attention is devoted to the category of case, which is absent from Swedish. Although it, generally, represents a description of a particular linguistic material, in fact the book addresses problems of the theory of language acquisition. The results and conclusions enable a better understanding of the universal semiotic and psychological principles that motivate the structure of the grammatical system of a natural language.

Autorentext

Roman Laskowski was professor emeritus at the University of Gothenburg and the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. As a Linguist and Slavicist, he was a professor at the Institute of the Polish Language at the Polish Academy of Sciences and member of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as of the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences in Gothenburg. He was the author of more than 150 scientific works, including 10 books.

Inhalt

Contents: Polish children in Sweden Idiolects of Polish children in Sweden: The phonological system, inflection, syntax, vocabulary The category of case: Disintegration of the case system in idiolects of the Polish diaspora Acquisition of case by a bilingual child in the second year of life (a case study) Some remarks on the case acquisition mechanisms.