Varilingualism: A Discrete Sub-Type of Language Competence

This paper describes the development of past marking as it occurs for small children in the Caribbean sociolinguistic complex of Trinidad and Tobago. In so doing it exemplifies how non-marking in verbal production can be distinguished from zero marking when zero (∅) is an integral part of the adult system to which the child is exposed. It shows how it can be distinguished in its users from the non-marking characteristic of individuals with specific language impairment (SLI) who have not acquired Standard English SE-ed. Simultaneously, the paper explicates the kind of alternation in use of forms which characterizes communities where code-mixing is normative and identifies strategies used by children to deal with potential ambiguities and redundancies. It also identifies language acquisition characteristics of children at the time of school entry. The information contained in the paper may be of benefit to educators and speech-language pathologists in helping them disambiguate different kinds of non-markedness, and also language variation which might otherwise appear unmotivated, and its developmental course.