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I was fortunate to be a research assistant to Professor Michael Clyne for a national project in 1999. Professor Clyne pioneered research into immigrant languages in Australia, focusing in particular on their structural changes, distribution, and maintenance in the Australian community. He is no longer with us, but his work in this area continues to have a profound influence on the discipline, both in Australia and in the international community. Professor Clyne read and commented on an earlier draft of this book shortly before his untimely death. I am much indebted to him for his vision, encouragement, and care.
Many other leading scholars and friends deserve acknowledgment for their contributions to my research. I am indebted to Elizabeth Lanza for her inspirational work in bilingualism and for her enthusiasm and moral support for my study. I am very grateful to Chen Ping and Li Yuming for providing initial advice and a list of readings in Chinese linguistics and Chinese monolingual children’s language development. Their help was critical in narrowing the scope of my research. I am indebted to Guo Xi for his enthusiastic help in finding much-needed references in Mandarin children’s pronoun development. Special thanks go to Gesela Håkansson for stimulating discussions when the research reported in this book was at its inception. Her knowledge of and experience with child language helped clarify my own thoughts. My great thanks also go to Jürgen Meisel for his invaluable comments and suggestions after my presentations at the International Symposia on Bilingualism. His insight and expertise enriched my mind and sharpened my views. I am deeply grateful to Annick De Houwer, who gave me extremely important advice at various stages of my study. This advice helped me extend some of the analysis in this book. Li Wei also deserves particular mention and special thanks; his expertise and insightful comments motivated me to rethink and rewrite certain sections of this work. Li Wei and Zhu Hua have been invaluable mentors at critical stages of my research and in the preparation of this book. I wish to thank them for being an inspiration and a source of strength.
Part of the book was prepared while I was a visiting research fellow at the University of Nanjing and a visiting scholar at the University of Hong