Early Child Trilingualism: German - French - Spanish in Germany

从出生开始就同时习得三种语言的少数现有研究表明，这种习得类型是可以成功的，即使直到今天，社会上仍有很多人对此持保留意见。一项针对德语-法语-西班牙语这三种语言的系统研究将支持这一发现，并将具体说明对早期儿童三语能力有积极影响的情况。首先，计划中的研究项目将表明，在双语儿童中具有积极影响的语言星座，三语儿童虽然同时习得三种语言，但他们的表现可以提高。在这种有益的语言星座的情况下，三语儿童在语法领域的表现应该与双语儿童一样好，甚至比单语儿童更好。其次，该研究项目将表明，如果第三语言具有特定的语言属性，在儿童早期双语中具有劣势的非营利性语言星座可以转化为儿童早期三语学习中有益的语言星座。在这种情况下，三语儿童在特定的语法领域表现优于双语儿童，尽管他们同时习得三种语言。计划中的研究项目的核心思想是，一种概括了更复杂派生函数的语言，而不是香蕉皮的垫脚石。该研究项目将有助于我们对幼儿多语的理解，并有助于减少与多语习得有关的偏见。

The few existing studies on the simultaneous acquisition of three languages from birth suggest that this acquisition type can be successful, even if, until today, there are a lot of reservations against it in society. A systematic study which focusses on the language trio German - French - Spanish will support this finding and will specify the circumstances which have a positive effect on early child trilingualism. First, the planned research project will show for the language constellation which has a positive effect in bilingual children that performance can be increased in trilingual children although they acquire three languages simultaneously. In the case of such a profitable language constellation, trilingual children should exhibit a performance in grammatical domains which is as good as in bilingual and even better than in monolingual children. Second, the research project will show that a non-profitable language constellation which has disadvantages in early child bilingualism can be transformed into a profitable language constellation in early child trilingualism if the third language has specific linguistic properties. Under these circumstances, trilingual children outperform bilingual children in particular grammatical domains although they acquire three languages simultaneously. The core idea of the planned research project is that a language which has generalized a more complex derivation functions rather as a steppingstone than a banana skin. The research project will contribute to our understanding of early child multilingualism and help reduce prejudices related to multilingual acquisition.