scholarly journals Restrictions on definiteness in the grammars of German-Turkish heritage speakers

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanja Kupisch ◽  
Alyona Belikova ◽  
Öner Özçelik ◽  
Ilse Stangen ◽  
Lydia White
Keyword(s):  
Age Of Acquisition ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Existential Constructions ◽  
Acceptability Judgments ◽  
Negative Existentials ◽  
Definite Expressions ◽  
Definiteness Effect

Abstract This paper reports on a study investigating restrictions on definiteness (the Definiteness Effect) in existential constructions in the two languages of Turkish heritage speakers in Germany. Turkish and German differ in how the Definiteness Effect plays out. Definite expressions in German may not occur in affirmative or negative existentials, whereas in Turkish the restriction applies only to affirmative existentials. Participants were adults and fell into two groups: simultaneous bilinguals (2L1) who acquired German before age 3 and early sequential bilinguals (2L1) who acquired German after age 4; there were also monolingual controls. The tasks involved acceptability judgments. Subjects were presented with contexts, each followed by a sentence to be judged, including grammatical and ungrammatical existentials. Results show that the bilinguals, regardless of age of acquisition, make judgments appropriate for each language. They reject definite expressions in negative existentials in German and accept them in Turkish, suggesting distinct grammars.

scholarly journals Restrictions on definiteness in second language acquisition

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lydia White ◽  
Alyona Belikova ◽  
Paul Hagstrom ◽  
Tanja Kupisch ◽  
Öner Özçelik
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Test Items ◽  
Series Of Experiments ◽  
Advanced Proficiency ◽  
Acceptability Judgments ◽  
Negative Existentials ◽  
Definite Expressions ◽  
Definiteness Effect

In this paper we investigate whether learners of L2 English show knowledge of the Definiteness Effect (Milsark, 1977), which restricts definite expressions from appearing in the existential there-insertion construction. There are crosslinguistic differences in how restrictions on definiteness play out. In English, definite expressions may not occur in either affirmative or negative existentials (e.g. There is a/*the mouse in my soup; There isn’t a/*the mouse in my soup). In Turkish and Russian, affirmative existentials observe a restriction similar to English, whereas negative existentials do not. We report on a series of experiments conducted with learners of English whose L1s are Turkish and Russian, of intermediate and advanced proficiency. Native speakers also took the test in English, Turkish, and Russian. The task involved acceptability judgments. Subjects were presented with short contexts, each followed by a sentence to be judged as natural/unnatural. Test items included affirmative and negative existentials, as well as items testing apparent exceptions to definiteness restrictions. Results show that both intermediate and advanced L2ers respond like English native speakers, crucially rejecting definites in negative existentials. A comparison with the groups taking the test in Russian and Turkish confirms that judgments in the L2 are quite different from the L1, suggesting that transfer cannot provide the explanation for learner success.

How “Native” Are Heritage Speakers?

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvina Montrul
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Age Of Acquisition ◽  
The Other ◽  
Gender Agreement ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
High Incidence ◽  
Incomplete Acquisition

One of the chief characteristics of heritage speakers is that they range in proficiency from “overhearers” to “native” speakers. To date, the vast majority of linguistic and psycholinguistic studies have characterized the non-target-like linguistic abilities of heritage speakers as a product of incomplete acquisition and/or attrition due to reduced exposure and opportunities to use the language during childhood. This article focuses on the other side of the problem, emphasizing instead the high incidence of native-like abilities in adult heritage speakers. I illustrate this issue with recent experimental evidence from gender agreement in Spanish, a grammatical feature that is mastered at almost 100% accuracy in production by native speakers;yet it is one of the most difficult areas to master for non-native speakers, including near-natives.I discuss how age of acquisition and language-learning experience explain these effects.

Sequential bilingual heritage children's L1 attrition in lexical retrieval: Age of acquisition versus language experience

2022 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Kitaek Kim ◽  
Hyunwoo Kim
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
Age Of Acquisition ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Lexical Retrieval ◽  
Language Attrition ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Length Of Residence ◽  
Heritage Speakers

Abstract This study investigated the unresolved issue of potential sources of heritage language attrition. To test contributing effects of three learner variables – age of second language acquisition, length of residence, and language input – on heritage children's lexical retrieval accuracy and speed, we conducted a real-time word naming task with 68 children (age 11–14 years) living in South Korea who spoke either Chinese or Russian as a heritage language. Results of regression analyses showed that the participants were less accurate and slower in naming target words in their heritage language as their length of residence in Korea and the amount of Korean input increased. The age of Korean acquisition did not significantly influence their performance. These findings support the claim that heritage speakers’ language experience is a more reliable predictor of first language attrition than age of acquisition. We discuss these findings in light of different approaches to explaining language attrition.

existential in Xhosa in relation to indefiniteness

2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-240
Author(s):  
Eva-Marie Bloom Ström
Keyword(s):  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Long Form ◽  
The World ◽  
Existential Constructions ◽  
Bare Nouns ◽  
Definiteness Effect

Bare nouns in languages without articles can be semantically ambiguous between definite and indefinite interpretations. It is here assumed that speakers of such languages can still signal to the hearer when they refer to unique and identifiable referents. This paper contributes to the long-standing cross-linguistic question of how bare nouns are interpreted and what means languages without articles have to disambiguate between definite and indefinite readings. This question is largely unexplored for Bantu languages. The answer is sought in the use of different word orders and morphosyntactic constructions, with a focus on the existential in this paper. In many languages of the world, there is a restriction on definites as pivots in existential constructions, serving as a motivation for exploring these constructions in Xhosa. Xhosa makes use of a non-verbal copula in prototypical existentials as well as predicate locatives, to express the existence or presence of a referent. The paper argues that the existential is used for inactive referents and the predicate locative for (semi-) active referents. The inactive referents of the existential are mainly indefinite referential or non-referential. The active referents of the predicate locative are referential indefinite or definite. There is no absolute definiteness effect in the existential. A further motivation for this study is the occurrence of this copula in a short and a long form, giving rise to four different structures. The paper reveals an unexpected analogy between the use of the short and long form and the use of the so called conjoint and disjoint forms in Xhosa tense-aspect paradigms.

L2 and Heritage Korean Tense Morphology in Discourse: Interplay between Lexical and Discursive Meaning

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-202
Author(s):  
Eun Hee Lee
Keyword(s):  
Early Stage ◽  
Age Of Acquisition ◽  
Early Age ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Aspect Hypothesis ◽  
Tense And Aspect ◽  
Relative Contribution ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
L1 English

This article reports on a study examining the tense and aspect morphology in oral narratives from L1 English L2 learners and heritage speakers of Korean, focusing on the relative contribution of lexical and discursive meaning in non-European languages by comparing the predictions of Discourse Hypothesis and Aspect Hypothesis. We also examine heritage speakers’ acquisition to discover whether an early age of acquisition, despite significant attrition later in life, leads to more native-like attainment of Korean. Unlike previous studies, our results suggest that discursive factors play a more significant role than lexical factors in determining the tense/aspect choice, and that temporal categories are interpreted indexically in the early stage of development.

scholarly journals Transfer into L3 English

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anika Lloyd-Smith ◽  
Henrik Gyllstad ◽  
Tanja Kupisch
Keyword(s):  
Native Speaker ◽  
Age Of Acquisition ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Language Dominance ◽  
L3 Acquisition ◽  
L1 English

Abstract This study is concerned with L3 acquisition in heritage speakers (HSs). The goals are to incorporate HSs into L3 acquisition research and investigate the role of language dominance for predicting L3 transfer. We analyze global accent in German-Turkish early bilinguals, HSs of Turkish, who acquired English as their L3. Twenty native-speaker judges determined accent strength and accent source in the speech of 18 bilinguals as well as 15 controls (L1 English, L1 German, L1 Turkish) when speaking English. Results show, firstly, that bilinguals are perceived as less accented than L1 Turkish speakers and similar to L1 German speakers. Secondly, unlike L1 controls, there is no uniform accent source for HSs when speaking their L3. Our results question the role of age of acquisition, while being generally consistent with the TPM. However, HSs seem to benefit from bilingual experience and structure-based transfer can be overpowered by high proficiency.

scholarly journals The Late(r) Bird Gets the Verb? Effects of Age of Acquisition of English on Adult Heritage Speakers’ Knowledge of Subjunctive Mood in Spanish

Languages ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 69
Author(s):  
Giancaspro
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Age Of Acquisition ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Heritage Speaker ◽  
Subjunctive Mood ◽  
Language Research ◽  
The Us ◽  
Preference Task ◽  
Specific Factors

Many previous studies have found that adult heritage speakers exhibit significant variability in their production and comprehension of mood morphology in Spanish. Nonetheless, it remains unclear what specific factors predict heritage speakers’ likelihood of exhibiting such variability. The present study contributes to this question by testing the effect of both (a) age-of-acquisition of English and (b) Spanish proficiency on heritage speakers’ productive and receptive knowledge of mood morphology. Seventeen “early” heritage speakers (age of acquisition of English: 0 to 3.5 years), 20 “late” heritage speakers (age of acquisition of English: 4 to 6 years), and 18 later childhood immigrants (age of arrival in the US: 8 to 12 years) completed a Contextualized Elicited Production Task and a Mood Preference Task. Results of the two experiments suggest that the later childhood immigrants, despite “overusing” subjunctive in +Presupposition adjectival relative clauses, are significantly more likely than “early” and “late” heritage speakers to produce and prefer subjunctive mood in expected subjunctive contexts (with para que and in -Presupposition adjectival relative clauses). Within the heritage speaker groups, however, Spanish proficiency was a stronger predictor of subjunctive knowledge than age of acquisition of English, a finding with implications for both heritage language research and pedagogy.

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