Character reference in Russian and Cypriot Greek by bilingual children

Abstract

This study investigates the development of character reference by bilingual Russian–Cypriot Greek children, in both Russian and Cypriot Greek. In particular, it is focused on such referential functions as character introduction, reintroduction and maintenance in narrative production. Twenty-three bilingual Russian–Cypriot Greek children (3–8 years old) participated in the study. Two stories (card method of picture presentation), with a different number of main characters (‘Cat’ story with four main characters and ‘Fox’ story with two main characters) and a different level of cognitive complexity were used for narrative elicitation. Cypriot Greek and Russian differ in terms of the way of encoding new/given information and referential status of the character. Cypriot Greek uses mainly local cues (definite vs. indefinite determiners), while Russian uses global cues (word order, case marking). The results of the study showed that bilingual children had a better performance, use of indefinite NPs for character introduction and definite NPs for character reintroduction in CG, but they had a better performance for character maintenance and use of overt pronouns in Russian. Story type, complexity and the number of the main characters in the story influence the use of referential forms by bilingual children, both in CG and in Russian.