Expressing displacement in heritage Cantonese: Cross-linguistic influence and structural vulnerability

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 603-618 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ziyin Mai ◽  
Chung-yin Kwan ◽  
Virginia Yip
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Basic Structure ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Structural Vulnerability ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Heritage Languages ◽  
Oral Production ◽  
Incomplete Acquisition

Aims and objectives: Heritage languages spoken by speakers in overseas communities can diverge significantly from the language spoken in the home country. Recent investigations have suggested that some grammatical structures or features are more vulnerable than others. This paper investigates the role of cross-linguistic influence, incomplete acquisition and attrition in heritage Cantonese in contact with English, focusing on the grammar of the pretransitive zoeng-construction in displacement contexts. Methodology: An elicited oral production task modelled on the fruit cart experiment was used to elicit displacement instructions in Cantonese. Fourteen heritage speakers and thirteen émigré speakers participated. All had acquired Cantonese as their first language but experienced a shift of language dominance to English due to immigration and education. Seventeen native speakers of Cantonese in Hong Kong served as the baseline. Data and analysis: The utterances were manually transcribed and coded. Production and error rates were calculated. Statistical results revealed quantitative differences among the three groups of Cantonese speakers. The baseline speakers preferred the zoeng-construction in displacement contexts, whereas the heritage and émigré speakers made greater use of canonical and topicalization structures. Nevertheless, the zoeng-sentences produced by the heritage and émigré speakers were all grammatical and felicitous. Findings: The basic structure of the zoeng-construction is kept intact in less than half of the heritage and émigré speakers’ Cantonese grammar. The zoeng-construction is thus vulnerable to intergenerational language change induced by language contact and individual differences, which is partially attributable to cross-linguistic influence from English. Originality: This is the first experimental study to investigate the grammar of heritage Cantonese. Significance: The study provides new empirical evidence of structural vulnerability and variability of heritage grammar and sheds light on the role of incomplete acquisition, cross-linguistic influence and attrition in such vulnerability.

Aspect in Heritage Greek: evidence from elicited production and online judgments

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
Anastasia Paspali ◽  
Vasiliki Rizou ◽  
Artemis Alexiadou
Keyword(s):  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Heritage Languages ◽  
Grammatical Aspect ◽  
Repeated Measures Design ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
The Us

Abstract This study tests grammatical aspect in adult Heritage Speakers (HSs) of Greek in Germany (HSs-Germany) and the US (HSs-US), a topic which has not been investigated before for this language, exploring the role of the dominant language and the default value as an acquisition strategy. In an oral elicitation task (Experiment 1) targeting the production of aspectual marking in Greek, Greek monolinguals (MSs) and HSs-Germany exhibited ceiling performance, while HSs-US were significantly less accurate. Education in Greek reliably predicted their accuracy. In a speeded Grammaticality Judgment task (Experiment 2) targeting the comprehension of aspect in a Grammaticality x Aspect repeated measures design, similar results were obtained for the grammatical conditions as in Experiment 1. In ungrammatical conditions, accuracy on aspect was affected for all groups, and this was more evident for HSs. HSs-US were overall less accurate with the morphologically marked form (perfective). Decision Times (DTs) revealed that only MSs and HSs-Germany were sensitive to aspect violations exhibiting longer DTs. Education in Greek reliably predicted accuracy and DTs. The results are discussed within the realm of heritage languages, language contact, and aspect acquisition in Greek bilingual populations. Finally, certain novel verbal forms produced by HSs are also discussed.

Phonological Complexity: Bernese Swiss German in Ohio and Misiones

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Robert Klosinski ◽  
Andrew D. Hoffman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Language Change ◽  
The United States ◽  
Heritage Languages ◽  
Swiss German ◽  
Local Contact ◽  
Additional Reference ◽  
Phonological Complexity

Abstract This article investigates the notion of complexity as it applies to two phonological characteristics of Heritage Bernese Swiss German, namely /l/-vocalization and /nd/-velarization. We survey literature on the role of complexity in language change generally, as well as how it applies to heritage languages specifically. We then present findings from our study of two groups of Heritage Bernese speakers, one in the United States and one in Argentina, with additional reference to the local contact languages. Our findings suggest that the loss of /nd/-velarization in Misiones, Argentina is most likely the result of an internally-driven reduction of complexity. For both the Ohio and Misiones communities, however, /l/-vocalization has been maintained. We conclude by discussing the importance of research into language dyads beyond those in the United States as well as pursuing research on lesser-studied heritage languages.

Language contact through translation

Target ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 420-455
Author(s):  
Shuangzi Pang ◽  
Kefei Wang
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Parallel Corpus ◽  
Source Language ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Sample Points ◽  
Chinese Texts

Abstract This article investigates the role of translations from English in language change in Chinese. It employs a new corpus, the Chinese Diachronic Composite Corpus (CDCC), which incorporates a parallel corpus and comparable corpus in three sampling periods in the twentieth century, and a refe­rence corpus as a starting point in the timeframe. We examine whether explicitness in English–Chinese translations has exerted an impact on the target language, focusing on adversative conjunctions as a measure of explicitness. The results of the study demonstrate that: (1) translated Chinese texts have changed in step with original Chinese texts in the frequency of adversative conjunctions; (2) translated Chinese texts and original Chinese texts are interrelated throughout the three periods, but the correlation between them has changed perceptibly over the three sample points; and (3) source language interference found in translated Chinese texts increases over the three periods.

Introduction to Heritage Language Development

2019 ◽  
pp. 417-433
Author(s):  
Silvina Montrul ◽  
Maria Polinsky
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Age Of Onset ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Heritage Languages ◽  
First Generation Immigrants ◽  
Heritage Language Development

This chapter presents and analyses main factors that contribute to attrition in heritage languages. It shows that heritage speakers are a highly heterogeneous population from both a psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic point of view. In principle, their language can differ from the language of their input (baseline language, usually that of first-generation immigrants to a new country). The differences can be due to how the heritage language developed under reduced input conditions, interference from the dominant language (transfer) and innovations in the grammar, potential changes incipient in the input, and attrition proper. The latter is particularly apparent when the language of adult heritage speakers is compared with the language of bilingual children; such children outperform heritage speakers on a variety of linguistic properties. The critical factors that affect language change in heritage speakers include the age of onset of bilingualism and quantity/quality of input.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. xxviii-4
Author(s):  
Monika S. Schmid ◽  
Barbara Köpke
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Language Attrition ◽  
Heritage Languages ◽  
Contact Language ◽  
Linguistic Interference ◽  
The Mind ◽  
International Experts

This volume is the first handbook dedicated to language attrition, the study of how a speaker’s language may be affected by cross-linguistic interference and non-use. The effects of language attrition can be felt in all aspects of language knowledge, processing, and production, and can offer unique insights into the mind of bilingual language users. In this book, international experts in the field explore a comprehensive range of topics in language attrition, examining its theoretical implications, psycho- and neurolinguistic approaches, linguistic and extralinguistic factors, second language (L2) attrition, and heritage languages. The chapters summarize current research and draw on insights from related fields such as child language development, language contact, language change, pathological developments, and second language acquisition.

Emergent communicative norms in a contact language: Indirect requests in heritage Russian

Linguistics ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Irina Y. Dubinina ◽  
Sophia A. Malamud
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Heritage Languages ◽  
Communicative Strategies ◽  
Contact Language ◽  
Indirect Requests ◽  
Research Questions

AbstractThe present paper contributes to the study of speech act pragmatics, language contact, bilingualism, and heritage languages by bringing attention to the pragmatics of a contact language, heritage Russian (HR). The current study has a descriptive orientation, its main goal being to create a baseline for the pragmatic competence of speakers with incomplete acquisition of L1, which characterizes language contact in immigrant populations. We focus on communicative strategies and the choice of linguistic forms in requests made by heritage speakers of Russian, native speakers of full Russian, and native speakers of American English. The specific research questions explored in this study are: Is the linguistic variable – the form of polite requests – correlated with the population (speakers of HR vs. speakers of full Russian)? How do the differences play out? Do HR speakers have their own communicative norms? If yes, did these new norms develop under the influence of English or as a result of language-internal restructuring? We report that HR exhibits evidence of developing its own conventions for expressing polite requests which differ from the corresponding conventions in full Russian. Specifically, HR speakers use significantly more impersonal modals than monolingual native speakers of Russian in informal scenarios and rely on increased syntactic complexity to mark polite requests in formal scenarios. In indirect requests produced in both types of scenarios, HR speakers overuse the downgrader

From Language Contact to Language Variation

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 288-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimo Cerruti
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Language Variation ◽  
Italian Region ◽  
The North ◽  
North Western ◽  
Insight Into

This paper falls within the line of research dealing with the role of intralinguistic variation in contact-induced language change. Two constructions are compared in terms of their respective degrees of grammaticalization: the progressive periphrasis ese lì c/a+Verb, which is widespread in some Northern Italo-Romance dialects, and the corresponding Italian construction essere lì che/a+Verb. The study focuses on the presence of such constructions in Turin, the capital of the north-western Italian region of Piedmont, in which the former periphrasis is less grammaticalized than the latter. It contends that the grammaticalization process of essere lì che/a+Verb was triggered by the contact between Piedmontese dialect and Italian, whereas the pace of grammaticalization of this periphrasis is affected by the contact between different varieties of Italian. The paper points out that the case study may provide insight into more general issues concerning not only the interplay of contact and variation in language change but also the role of sociolinguistic factors in shaping contact-induced grammaticalization phenomena.

scholarly journals Using the variationist comparative method to examine the role of language contact in synthetic and periphrastic verbs in Spanish

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 394-419 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Dumont ◽  
Damián Vergara Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Mexican Spanish ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
Convergence Hypothesis ◽  
Verbal System ◽  
New Mexican ◽  
Linguistic Constraints

Language contact and linguistic change are thought to go hand in hand (e.g. Silva-Corvalán 1994), however there are methodological obstacles, such as collecting data at different points in time or the availability of monolingual data for comparison, that make claims about language change tenuous. The present study draws on two different corpora of spoken Spanish — bilingual New Mexican Spanish and monolingual Ecuadorian Spanish — in order to quantitatively assess the convergence hypothesis in which contact with English has produced a change to the Spanish verbal system, as reflected in an extension of the Present and Past Progressive forms at the expense of the synthetic Simple Present and Imperfect forms. The data do not show that the Spanish spoken by the bilinguals is changing to more closely resemble the analogous English progressive constructions, but instead suggest potential weakening of linguistic constraints on the conditioning of the variation between periphrastic and synthetic forms.

scholarly journals El género gramatical en español entre los hablantes de herencia y los hablantes nativos

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew M Gill
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
Production Task ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Heritage Languages ◽  
Oral Production ◽  
Spanish Speaking ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Study Support ◽  
Heritage Speakers Of Spanish

Los hablantes de herencia, es decir, las personas que hablan una lengua desde el nacimiento que acaba convirtiéndose en una lengua no dominante con el tiempo, constituyen un grupo tradicionalmente poco estudiado; sin embargo, últimamente está recibiendo mayor atención. Un área que ha emergido en los últimos años es la realización del género gramatical en las lenguas de herencia. Las investigaciones previas indican que existe una diferencia significativa entre los hispanohablantes nativos y los de herencia (Montrul, 2014; Valenzuela et al., 2012); por tanto, el propósito de este estudio es contribuir a la literatura de los hablantes de herencia. En el presente estudio, se dividió a 43 participantes hispanohablantes en grupos dependiendo de si eran nativos o de herencia. Cada participante llevó a cabo una Elicited Oral Production Task. Los resultados demuestran que los hablantes de herencia tienden a cometer un número de fallos de género significativamente mayor que los hablantes nativos y que usan ciertas estrategias, como la autocorrección, significativamente más que los nativos para evitar cometer dichos fallos. Los resultados del estudio respaldan las conclusiones de investigaciones previas, que indican que los hablantes de herencia no realizan el género gramatical de manera nativa. Heritage speakers, that is, speakers of a language that is spoken since birth but becomes a non-dominant language over time, are classically an understudied group. However, in the field of linguistics, the subfield of heritage speakers is rapidly expanding. Specifically, the realization of grammatical gender in heritage languages has not been studied extensively until just recently. Previous research indicates that a significant difference exists between native and heritage speakers of Spanish (Montrul, 2014; Valenzuela et al., 2012); thus, the purpose of this study is to contribute to the literature of this growing subfield. In the present study, 43 Spanish-speaking participants were divided into groups depending on whether they were native or heritage speakers. Each of the participants carried out an Elicited Oral Production Task. Results demonstrate that heritage speakers tend to make significantly more gender errors than native speakers and that heritage speakers also utilize certain strategies, like self-correction, significantly more than native speakers in order to avoid committing these errors. Results from this study support the findings in previous research, which indicate that heritage speakers are not native-like in their realization of grammatical gender.

First- and Second-Language Acquisition and CILC

2020 ◽  
pp. 214-240
Author(s):  
Eva Duran Eppler ◽  
Gabriel Ozón
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Change ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Language Variation And Change ◽  
Language Data ◽  
L1 And L2

This chapter explores the contested role of L1 and L2 acquisition in contact-induced linguistic change (CILC). We first identify three factors underlying these controversies (field of research; theoretical approach; and methodological limitations/advances), before discussing two elements language change and language acquisition have in common (i.e., isolated individuals cannot accomplish either, and both have to be studied through natural language data, with its attendant high degree of variation). We go on to define key terms and concepts for the role of L1 and L2 acquisition in contact-induced language change, including first and second language acquisition (L1A and L2A), bilingual first language acquisition, language variation and change, language contact and contact-induced language change. In the main section we discuss the role of L1A and L2A in CILC, and examine different language-acquisition scenarios, in particular their potential for leading to CILC. We use these different language-acquisition types as testing grounds for the motivations behind (i.e., causes for, and triggers of) language change, and arrive at tentative conclusions about which of these language-acquisition scenarios is more likely to play a role in CILC, and why.

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