Why Not Heritage Speakers?

Linguistic

Heritage Languages and Their Speakers: Opportunities and Challenges for Linguistics

In this paper, we bring to the attention of the linguistic community recent research on heritage languages. Shifting linguistic attention from the model of a monolingual speaker to the model of a multilingual speaker is important for the advancement of our understanding of the language faculty. Native speaker competence is typically the result of normal first language acquisition in an environment where the native language is dominant in various contexts, and learners have extensive and continuous exposure to it and opportunities to use it. Heritage speakers present a different case: they are bilingual speakers of an ethnic or immigrant minority language, whose first language often does not reach native-like attainment in adulthood. We propose a set of connections between heritage language studies and theory construction, underscoring the potential that this population offers for linguistic research. We examine several important grammatical phenomena from the standpoint of their representation in heritage languages, including case, aspect, and other interface phenomena. We discuss how the questions raised by data from heritage speakers could fruitfully shed light on current debates about how language works and how it is acquired under different conditions. We end with a consideration of the potential competing factors that shape a heritage language system in adulthood.Linguistic

Defining an “ideal” heritage speaker: Theoretical and methodological challenges | Reply to peer commentaries

Linguistic

Sobre algumas propriedades relacionadas ao parâmetro do sujeito nulo na aquisição do português brasileiro como L3

As language undergoing language change, Brazilian Portuguese presents characteristics of both pro-drop and non-pro drop systems. This study investigates the acquisition of two properties assumed to be related to the null subject parameter—clitic-climbing and the that-t effect—by adult learners of Brazilian Portuguese who speak a pro-drop language (Spanish) (n = 11) and a non pro-drop language (English) (n =19) as either L1 or L2. Results of an acceptability judgment task showed that the non-native speakers overall converged on the grammars of the Brazilian Portuguese control group (n =19), but there were transfer effects from Spanish for the L1-Spanish speaking learners and from both Spanish and English in the L1-English speaking learners. We discuss the implications of these findings for the role of transfer in L3 acquisition.KEYWORDS: Null subject parameter. L3 acquisition. Brazilian Portuguese. RESUMO O português brasileiro, por estar em processo de mudanças, apresenta características tanto de sistemas pro-drop quanto de sistemas não pro-drop. Este estudo investiga a aquisição de duas propriedades que se assume que estão relacionadas ao parâmetro do sujeito nulo – a subida de clítico e o efeito that-t– por adultos aprendizes do português brasileiro, falantes de uma língua pro-drop (espanhol) (n = 11) e de uma língua não pro-drop (inglês) (n = 19), seja como L1 ou como L2. Os resultados de um teste de julgamento de aceitabilidade mostraram que, em geral, os falantes não nativos tenderam à/se aproximaram da gramática do grupo de controle formado por falantes de português brasileiro (n = 19). Porém, observaram-se efeitos de transferência do espanhol para os aprendizes falantes nativos de espanhol e transferências de ambas as línguas, espanhol e inglês, para os aprendizes falantes nativos de inglês. Discutimos as implicações destes resultados para o papel da transferência na aquisição de L3.PALAVRAS-CHAVES: Parâmetro do sujeito nulo. Aquisição de L3. Português brasileiro.O português brasileiro, por estar em processo de mudanças, apresenta características tanto de sistemas pro-drop quanto de sistemas não pro-drop. Este estudo investiga a aquisição de duas propriedades que se assume que estão relacionadas ao parâmetro do sujeito nulo – a subida de clítico e o efeito that-t– por adultos aprendizes do português brasileiro, falantes de uma língua pro-drop (espanhol) (n = 11) e de uma língua não pro-drop (inglês) (n = 19), seja como L1 ou como L2. Os resultados de um teste de julgamento de aceitabilidade mostraram que, em geral, os falantes não nativos tenderam à/se aproximaram da gramática do grupo de controle formado por falantes de português brasileiro (n = 19). Porém, observaram-se efeitos de transferência do espanhol para os aprendizes falantes nativos de espanhol e transferências de ambas as línguas, espanhol e inglês, para os aprendizes falantes nativos de inglês. Discutimos as implicações destes resultados para o papel da transferência na aquisição de L3.PALAVRAS-CHAVES: Parâmetro do sujeito nulo. Aquisição de L3. Português brasileiro

Doing Romance Linguistics: A Multilingual Acquisition Perspective

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Sources of variability in the acquisition of Differential Object Marking by Turkish heritage language children in the United States

Differential object marking (DOM) is an area of vulnerability in adult heritage speakers. This study traces such vulnerability to childhood by examining Turkish DOM in child Turkish heritage speakers in the U.S and the parental generation, who are the main input providers. Twenty first-generation immigrants, 20 adult and 20 child (aged 7–14) Turkish heritage speakers, and the monolingual group including 20 Turkish-speaking adults, 20 7–14-year-old and 20 3–6-year-old Turkish-speaking children in Turkey completed a story retelling task and a picture selection task. Results showed that the first-generation immigrants patterned with the monolingual adults. However, the heritage speakers (children and adults) omitted DOM in both tasks, showing more variable performance than the monolingual groups. These findings suggest that instability of DOM in heritage grammars is more likely due to insufficient input in the early years of heritage language development than to changes in parental input or attrition in later years.Ope

The role of input factors in the lexical development of european Portuguese as a heritage language in Portuguese-German bilingual speakers

In light of previous research on early bilingualism, this study investigates whether 6–11-year-old child heritage speakers (HSs) of European Portuguese (EP), living in Germany, show patterns of lexical development similar to those of monolingual EP children, both in terms of vocabulary size and of lexical composition. Moreover, it assesses the role of factors related to the quantity and quality of the input in the HSs’ lexical development in EP. Twenty-three bilingual and 21 monolingual children were tested on a semi-spontaneous oral production task. The collected data were used to build a corpus composed of three subcorpora (nouns, verbs, adjectives), which served as a basis for between- and within-group comparisons. Information regarding the HSs’ language experience was collected by means of a parental questionnaire. Results revealed significant between-group differences concerning the total corpus and the subcorpora of nouns and verbs. Within-group comparisons showed that both groups produced significantly more nouns than verbs and more verbs than adjectives. Correlation analyses revealed that the HSs’ lexical knowledge is significantly correlated with the input and output quantity at home as well as with the number of EP-speaking parents. Parents emerge as the key players in the acquisition of EP as a heritage languageinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Relative clauses in child heritage speakers of Turkish in the United States

How does complex syntax develop in heritage language children? This study investigates child Turkish heritage speakers’ comprehension and production of relative clauses (RCs) in Turkish and in English. RCs vary on their syntactic functions (subject, object) and show asymmetric patterns of acquisition and processing, which have been explained by linear distance, structural distance and input factors. Thirty-two child Turkish HS (ages 6–15) and 48 monolingual Turkish children (ages 3–15) completed a picture-sentence matching (comprehension) task and a sentence repetition (production) task in Turkish. The Turkish HS were tested on the RC comprehension and production in English as well. The results indicated that the child HS showed (i) better performance in English than in Turkish with increasing age, (ii) better comprehension than production of Turkish RCs, (iii) replacement of complex RCs with simple juxtaposition in Turkish, and (iv) a subject advantage in comprehension. We take these findings to suggest that Turkish RCs do not fully develop in child HS of Turkish in the U.S., although the strength of this explanation must be corroborated by a study of child and adult HS. Overall, the findings are most compatible with the structural distance account and other factors that may affect production.Ope

Case Marking in Hindi as the Weaker Language

Does language dominance modulate knowledge of case marking in Hindi-speaking bilinguals? Hindi is a split ergative language with a rich morphological case system. Subjects of transitive perfective predicates are marked with ergative case (-ne). Human specific direct objects, indirect objects, and dative subjects are marked with the particle -ko. We compared knowledge of case marking in Hindi–English bilinguals with different dominance patterns: 23 balanced bilinguals and two groups of bilinguals with Hindi as their weaker language: 24 L2 learners of Hindi with age of acquisition (AoA) of Hindi in adulthood and 26 Hindi heritage speakers with AoA of Hindi since birth in oral production and acceptability judgments. The balanced bilinguals outperformed the English-dominant bilinguals; the L2 learners and the heritage speakers, who showed similar lower command of the Hindi case marking system, with the exception of -ko marking as a function of specificity with direct objects. We consider how dominant language transfer, AoA of Hindi, and input factors may explain the acquisition and knowledge of morphology in Hindi as the weaker language