Linguist Hannah Sarvasy of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam has been awarded an ERC Starting Grant for her research project, PNGLang. She is investigating the impact on children’s language and cognitive development when parents in Papua New Guinea stop passing on their indigenous languages and increasingly speak Tok Pisin at home.
Papua New Guinea boasts an exceptionally high level of linguistic diversity, with approximately 850 languages. However, this diversity is under pressure. An increasing number of parents are choosing to speak Tok Pisin- an English-based creole- with their children. As this language is widely used outside of local communities, it can offer greater social and economic opportunities.
This choice is understandable: parents want to prepare their children for a future beyond their own villages. At the same time, this shift may have consequences that have barely been studied. Indigenous languages often possess a very rich, specific vocabulary and complex grammatical structures. As a relatively young creole language, Tok Pisin has a more limited vocabulary and simpler structures.
What does language loss mean for children’s development?
Through the PNGLang project, Sarvasy is conducting the first comprehensive study into what this language shift implies for how children acquire language, retain information, and focus their attention.
Research conducted in regions such as the United States and Europe suggests that the richness and variety of the language young children are exposed to are linked to their vocabulary and broader development. Whether this also holds true in the highly multilingual environment of Papua New Guinea, however, remains largely unknown.
Yet, it is precisely in this setting that a major societal transformation is currently taking place. In Nungon- one of the languages Sarvasy has previously studied extensively- a single verb can take on as many as 180 different forms. Furthermore, the language includes over 400 local names for plants and more than 200 for birds. When parents switch to using Tok Pisin, some of this linguistic richness may vanish from their children’s daily lives.
Sarvasy aims to determine whether children who are primarily exposed to Tok Pisin learn and develop differently than children who grow up with a local indigenous language.
From home conversations to brain processes
The research employs a variety of methods. Sarvasy and her team record the language used around children throughout the day, track their development over an extended period, and conduct experiments on how children and young adults process language.
In doing so, they investigate, among other things, how the quality of linguistic input differs between Tok Pisin and local languages, how this input relates to child development, and how grammatical differences between languages influence cognitive processes.
In this work, Sarvasy builds upon her previous research on Nungon. This language features grammatical forms that require speakers to indicate whether the subject of a subsequent action will remain the same or change. Using eye-tracking, Sarvasy and her colleagues previously demonstrated that Nungon speakers appear to plan further ahead while speaking than English speakers do. Through the PNGLang project, she is further exploring how such linguistic characteristics relate to cognitive processes.
Supporting parents in a consequential decision
The research therefore carries significance beyond the scientific realm. In small linguistic communities, the choices made by just a few families can contribute to the disappearance of a language. Currently, parents often have to make such decisions without access to scientific information regarding the potential consequences for their children’s language and cognitive development.
For this reason, Sarvasy is collaborating on the project with young parents from rural communities, as well as with local authorities and professionals in the fields of education and healthcare - all of whom are among the primary stakeholders for the research findings.
The knowledge gained from PNGLang can assist them in making better-informed choices about the languages children learn at home and at school. At the same time, the research may offer new insights for communities elsewhere in the world where smaller languages are under pressure.
With her ERC Starting Grant, amounting to €2,060,357.50, Sarvasy aims to bridge two fields of study: psycholinguistics and research on endangered languages. In doing so, the focus shifts from merely documenting languages before they vanish to addressing an earlier, fundamental question: what can communities, parents, and policymakers do while children are still able to learn these languages?
Sarvasy will conduct part of the research at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Additionally, through Western Sydney University, she will continue her investigation into the impact of language endangerment on young people in Papua New Guinea.