Neurolinguistic aspects of attrition

International audienceThe aim of this paper is to provide the reader with a general overview of the field of attrition. Having situated this relatively new research domain with respect to related fields and approaches, a brief summary of the most important research questions and preliminary findings is given. The discussion then focuses on two issues that are of particular interest with respect to neurolinguistics: the role of the subject's age and of the influence of L2. Concerning the former, a summary of research on the critical period hypothesis is given and discussed in the light of findings from attrition research. Another issue concerns the principal mechanisms involved in L1 attrition, i.e. whether attrition occurs because of lack of L1 use or because of its replacement by the competing L2 structures. Research issues of such scope need integrative approaches and greatly benefit from comparisons with related fields such as normal aging, acquisition and aphasia

Stability in Chinese and Malay heritage languages as a source of divergence

This article discusses Malay and Chinese heritage languages as spoken in the Netherlands. Heritage speakers are dominant in another language and use their heritage language less. Moreover, they have qualitatively and quantitatively different input from monolinguals. Heritage languages are often described in terms of change. This article focuses on three types of stability in heritage speakers: stability in form, based on two case studies on progressive and definite marking, stability in function, based on a study on classifiers in Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese, and stability in form and meaning based on a study on the non-completion of the grammaticalization process of punya. We relate (non)- change to the influence of the dominant language as well as to more general effects of bilingualism

First language attrition: The methodology revised

This article presents a criticism of the methodology most frequently used by language attrition studies. In particular, the preoccupation of such research with ?errors? in the data from attriters is questioned. It is proposed that approaches which focus on overt deviance cannot come to a full understanding of the attritional process, and that a full investigation of lexical, morphological and syntactic complexity and richness of the data produced by attriters is necessary in order to achieve a truly balanced view. The limitations to the insights gained on the basis of an error-based approach to language attrition, and the potential of an analysis that takes into account all aspects of proficiency, are illustrated on the basis of an investigation of autobiographical narratives from German Jews

Quantitative analyses in a multivariate study of language attrition: the impact of extralinguistic factors

Most linguistic processes — acquisition, change, deterioration — take place in and are determined by a complex and multifactorial web of language internal and language external influences. This implies that the impact of each individual factor can only be determined on the basis of a careful consideration of its interplay with all other factors. The present study investigates to what degree a number of sociolinguistic and extralinguistic factors, which have been previously demonstrated or claimed to be relevant in the context of language attrition, can account for individual differences in first language (L1) proficiency. Data were collected from attriting populations with German as their L1: one in a Dutch language context ( n = 53) and one in a Canadian English setting ( n = 53). These groups were compared to a reference group of Germans in Germany ( n = 53). Overall, the proposed outcome measures (derived from both formal tasks and a free speech task) are argued to be stable and valid indicators of attrition effects. The predictor variables under investigation are shown to fall into several reliable factor groups, for example, identification and affiliation with L1, exposure to German language and attitude towards L1. These are the factor groups that have, so far, been considered the most important for the process of L1 attrition or maintenance. However, the predictive power exercised by these factor groups in the present study is shown to be relatively weak. </jats:p

Heritage Languages:A language contact approach

Heritage languages, such as the Turkish varieties spoken in Berlin or the Spanish used in Los Angeles, are non-dominant languages, often with little prestige. Their speakers also speak the dominant language of the country they live in. Often heritage languages undergo changes due to their special status. They have received a lot of scholarly attention and provide a link between academic concerns and educational issues. This book takes a language contact perspective: we consider heritage languages from the perspective of their history, their structural properties, and their interaction with other surrounding languages