Exploring individual variation in Turkish heritage speakers’ complex linguistic productions: Evidence from discourse markers

Research on multilingual speakers is often compared to monolingual baselines which are commonly treated as if they were homogeneous across speakers. Despite recent research showing that this homogeneity does not hold, these practices reproduce native-speakerism and monolingualism. Heritage language research, which established itself in the past two decades, is no exemption. Focusing on three predefined linguistic groups, namely Turkish speakers which are framed as monolingual in Turkey as well as two heritage bilingually framed groups in Germany and the USA, we ask: (1) Do heritage speakers of Turkish produce more discourse and fluency markers (FMs) than monolingual speakers? (2) Are the groups homogeneous, or is there wide variation between speakers across groups? We focus on the variation between and within groups using Bayesian Linear Regression with a multilevel model for speakers and heritage groups. Our findings confirm that the use of discourse and FMs is largely defined through individual variation, and not through the belonging to a certain speaker group. By focusing on variation across groups rather than between groups, our study design supports the growing body of literature that questions common heritage language research practices of today and shows alternative paths to understanding heritage grammars.Peer Reviewe

Scalar and Counterfactual Approximatives: Investigating Heritage Greek in the USA and Germany

Approximative constructions present special interest for acquisition due to the counterfactual and scalar inferences they give rise to. In this paper we investigate the acquisition of Greek approximatives by heritage speakers in Germany and the USA. We show that while in English and German there is a single lexical item encoding counterfactuality and scalarity, in Greek there are two lexical items which, as we show, have different interpretations. In view of this difference, we test whether the crosslinguistic differences and the interface nature of approximative constructions affect their representation in heritage language. We present a production study and a comprehension study of approximative constructions. Our findings suggest that the two heritage groups do not diverge from the monolingual group in the domain of approximative constructions.Peer Reviewe

Turkish-German heritage speakers' predictive use of case: webcam-based vs. in-lab eye-tracking

Recently, Özge et al. have argued that Turkish and German monolingual 4-year-old children can interpret case-marking predictively disregarding word order. Heritage speakers (HSs) acquire a heritage language at home and a majority societal language which usually becomes dominant after school enrollment. Our study directly compares two elicitation modes: in-lab and (remote) webcam-based eye-tracking data collection. We test the extent to which in-lab effects can be replicated in webcam-based eye-tracking using the exact same design. Previous research indicates that Turkish HSs vary more in the comprehension and production of case-marking compared to monolinguals. Data from 49 participants–22 Turkish monolinguals and 27 HSs–were analyzed using a binomial generalized linear mixed-effects regression model. In the Accusative condition, participants looked for the suitable Agent before it is appeared in speech. In the Nominative condition, participants looked for the suitable Patient before it is appeared in speech. HSs were able to use morphosyntactic cues on NP1 to predict the thematic role of NP2. This study supports views in which core grammatical features of languages, such as case, remain robust in HSs, in line with the Interface Hypothesis. We were able to replicate the effect of the predictive use of case in monolinguals using webcam-based eye-tracking, but the replication with heritage speakers was not successful due to variability in data collection contexts. A by-participant analysis of the results revealed individual variation in that there were some speakers who do not use case-marking predictively in the same way as most monolinguals and most HSs do. These findings suggest that the predictive use of case in heritage speakers is influenced by different factors, which may differ across individuals and affect their language abilities. We argue that HSs should be placed on a native-speaker continuum to explain variability in language outcomes.Peer Reviewe

Turkish-German heritage speakers’ predictive use of case: webcam-based vs. in-lab eye-tracking

Recently, Özge et al. have argued that Turkish and German monolingual 4-year- old children can interpret case-marking predictively disregarding word order. Heritage speakers (HSs) acquire a heritage language at home and a majority societal language which usually becomes dominant after school enrollment. Our study directly compares two elicitation modes: in-lab and (remote) webcam- based eye-tracking data collection. We test the extent to which in-lab eects can be replicated in webcam-based eye-tracking using the exact same design. Previous research indicates that Turkish HSs vary more in the comprehension and production of case-marking compared to monolinguals. Data from 49 participants–22 Turkishmonolinguals and 27 HSs–were analyzed using a binomial generalized linear mixed-eects regression model. In the Accusative condition, participants looked for the suitable Agent before it is appeared in speech. In the Nominative condition, participants looked for the suitable Patient before it is appeared in speech. HSs were able to usemorphosyntactic cues on NP1 to predict the thematic role of NP2. This study supports views in which core grammatical features of languages, such as case, remain robust in HSs, in line with the Interface Hypothesis. We were able to replicate the eect of the predictive use of case in monolinguals using webcam-based eye-tracking, but the replication with heritage speakers was not successful due to variability in data collection contexts. A by- participant analysis of the results revealed individual variation in that there were some speakers who do not use case-marking predictively in the same way asmost monolinguals and most HSs do. These findings suggest that the predictive use of case in heritage speakers is influenced by dierent factors, whichmay dier across individuals and aect their language abilities. We argue that HSs should be placed on a native-speaker continuum to explain variability in language outcomes

Outcomes of high-risk breast lesions diagnosed using image-guided core needle biopsy: results from a multicenter retrospective study

PURPOSEThe clinical management of high-risk lesions using image-guided biopsy is challenging. This study aimed to evaluate the rates at which such lesions were upgraded to malignancy and identify possible predictive factors for upgrading high-risk lesions.METHODSThis retrospective multicenter analysis included 1.343 patients diagnosed with high-risk lesions using an image-guided core needle or vacuum-assisted biopsy (VAB). Only patients managed using an excisional biopsy or with at least one year of documented radiological follow-up were included. For each, the Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) category, number of samples, needle thickness, and lesion size were correlated with malignancy upgrade rates in different histologic subtypes. Pearson’s chi-squared test, the Fisher–Freeman–Halton test, and Fisher’s exact test were used for the statistical analyses.RESULTSThe overall upgrade rate was 20.6%, with the highest rates in the subtypes of intraductal papilloma (IP) with atypia (44.7%; 55/123), followed by atypical ductal hyperplasia (ADH) (38.4%; 144/375), lobular neoplasia (LN) (12.7%; 7/55), papilloma without atypia (9.4%; 58/611), flat epithelial atypia (FEA) (8.7%; 10/114), and radial scars (RSs) (4.6%; 3/65). There was a significant relationship between the upgrade rate and BI-RADS category, number of samples, and lesion size Lesion size was the most predictive factor for an upgrade in all subtypes.CONCLUSIONADH and atypical IP showed considerable upgrade rates to malignancy, requiring surgical excision. The LN, IP without atypia, pure FEA, and RS subtypes showed lower malignancy rates when the BI-RADS category was lower and in smaller lesions that had been adequately sampled using VAB. After being discussed in a multidisciplinary meeting, these cases could be managed with follow-up instead of excision

Disfluencies in Turkish heritage speakers

Previous studies have shown that heritage speakers (HSs) usually attain monolingual-like knowledge in their heritage language (HL) except for occasional non-canonical phenomena in some domains including morphosyntax, semantics, pragmatics, phonetics and phonology and interfaces. However, much less is known about the extent to which the mechanisms underlying their spoken production are affected by bilingualism. In order to explore whether they use the same mechanism in speech planning and execution as the monolingual speakers, we investigate disfluencies in their spontaneous speech. As discontinuities may affect up to ten percent of all words and one third of all utterances in natural speech (Shriberg, 2001, p. 153), they provide a window to understanding the underlying mechanisms of speech (Dell, 1986; Levelt, 1989). Our informants, HSs of Turkish living in Berlin (n= 35) and monolingual speakers in Istanbul (n=30) were shown a 13-minute excerpt from a silent movie (Modern Times) and asked to retell the sequence. At the current stage of our investigation, all speech samples are transcribed according to CHAT conventions (see http://childes.psy.cmu.edu) and hesitation phenomena are classified into five types: silent pauses, filled pauses, retractions, repetitions of discourse and false starts. For each speech sample, individual categories of hesitation phenomena will be counted and subsequently recalculated per 1,000 words so as to be analysed and compared with data from the monolingual speakers. Filled pauses are pauses that are predominantly related to the semantic function of discourse markers (i.e., discourse organization and information structure), whereas other hesitation markers—silent pauses, retractions, repetitions and false starts—are associated with cognitive issues such as lexical retrieval or information recall. In view of previous findings from bilinguals (Schmid & Fägersten, 2010), we predict that our participants will overuse hesitation markers associated with cognitive processing as they have to manage two linguistic systems at the same time. In particular, increased disfluency for longer and more complex sentences and before lexical items (i.e., nouns and verbs) would be very likely. We also expect more disfluencies that have semantic functions when compared with monolinguals as well as a different distributional pattern in terms of their location (i.e., mostly in clause-internal contexts as opposed to clause boundaries) due to interlanguage effects. In order to explore the impact of background variables (i.e., language use, proficiency, age of L2 onset and attitudes), on the incidence and distribution of hesitation markers, a separate set of analyses will be carried out. We hope that our analyses will reveal intriguing findings about speech planning, production and monitoring of the HSs, and help us understand the role of language internal versus interlanguage effects in HL variation

Exploring individual variation in Turkish heritage speakers’ complex linguistic productions: Evidence from discourse markers

Research in multilingual speakers is often compared to monolingual baselines which are commonly treated as if they were homogeneous across speakers. Despite recent research showing that this homogeneity does not hold, this reproduces nativespeakerism and monolingualism. In our study, we want to analyze the use of discourse markers in three different speaker groups of Turkish, and analyze extensively the variation between and within those groups. We interpret discourse markers as speech planning events, and distinguish between macro-planning utterance-initially, as well as micro-planning within an utterance. Both planning events are hypothesized to be more frequent with heritage speakers. The study also focusses on individual variation within those groups

Pro-drop realization in heritage Greek, Russian and Turkish

The aim of this research article is to present a comparative approach to subject realizations taking into account the different types of pro-drop