Complementizer agreement in eastern Wisconsin: (Central) Franconian features in an American heritage language community

2014 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Bousquette
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Community ◽  
Second Person ◽  
Subject Pronouns ◽  
Complementizer Agreement ◽  
American Heritage ◽  
Linguistic Cycle ◽  
Inflectional Affixes

AbstractThe present study shows that Wisconsin Heritage German licenses complementizer agreement for second person singular, with inflectional affixes developed through the reanalysis of phonetically-derived hiatus effects. Most frequently attested in speakers with direct ancestry to Franconian-speaking regions, this phenomenon is restricted to second person singular, consistent with the input varieties at time of immigration. Analyzed diachronically, complementizer agreement is shown to progress through a linguistic cycle involving the reanalysis and subsequent compensatory reinforcement of subject pronouns, with Wisconsin Heritage German exhibiting the earliest stage of this cycle.

Faetar null subjects: a variationist study of a heritage language in contact

2017 ◽  
Vol 2018 (249) ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi Nagy ◽  
Michael Iannozzi ◽  
David Heap
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Subject Pronouns ◽  
Greater Toronto Area

AbstractFaetar is an under-documented variety descended from Francoprovençal and spoken in two isolated Apulian villages in southern Italy as well as in the emigrant diaspora, especially in the Greater Toronto Area. Speakers use two series of subject pronouns (

scholarly journals When Bilingualism is the Common Factor: Switch Reference at the Junction of Competence and Performance in Both Second Language and Heritage Language Performance

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 590-616 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiffany Judy ◽  
Michael T. Putnam ◽  
Jason Rothman
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Adult Learners ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Common Factor ◽  
Language Performance ◽  
Subject Pronouns ◽  
Different Populations ◽  
The Common ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Heritage Language Speakers

In this paper we take a closer look at the oft-touted divide between heritage language speakers and adult second language (L2) learners. Here, we explore whether some properties of language may display general effects across different populations of bilinguals, explaining, at least partially, why these two groups show some common differences when compared with monolinguals. To test this hypothesis, we adduce data from two unique populations of bilinguals: a moribund variety of heritage German spoken in southwestern Kansas (Moundridge Schweitzer German) and L2 adult learners of Spanish. Empirically, we investigate whether the confound of switch reference adds an additional cognitive burden to these bilinguals in licensing object control predicates in the former and referential subject pronouns in the latter. Our preliminary findings support the view that overarching concepts such as incomplete acquisition cannot capture the variability observed in these populations, thus further supporting approaches that interpret findings such as these to be the result of specific variables.

Ideologies of Heritage: Language, Community, and Identity among Ethiopian Immigrants in Prince George's County, Maryland

2009 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 15-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Chernela ◽  
Amy Carattini ◽  
Bethany Applebaum
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
The Other ◽  
Language Community ◽  
Prince George's County ◽  
Ethiopian Immigrants ◽  
The Past ◽  
The One

While analysts and practitioners today recognize that heritage entails processes of both "preservation" and "innovation," most face challenges when it comes to finding methodologies capable of capturing these apparently contradictory and elusive attributes. The problem lies, in part, in reconciling notions of a stable, authorized past, on the one hand, and dynamic constructions of the past, on the other. Erve Chambers addresses this duality by dividing heritage into two types-one, public, and based in "authenticity," the other private and grounded in "significance" (2006:33-35). In the first usage that which is called the "past" serves as a fixed referent that may be valued for its iconic role. In the second usage, heritage is recognized as dynamic and emergent.

scholarly journals The Intonation of Polar Questions in North American (“Heritage”) Icelandic

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 213-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Dehé
Keyword(s):  
North American ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
American English ◽  
Considerable Extent ◽  
Dominant Language ◽  
American Heritage

Using map task data, this paper investigates the intonation of polar questions in North American (heritage) Icelandic, and compares it to the intonation of polar questions in Icelandic as spoken in Iceland and in North American English as spoken in Manitoba, Canada. The results show that intonational features typical of Icelandic polar questions are present to a considerable extent in heritage Icelandic. Furthermore, intonational features typical of North American English polar questions can frequently be observed in heritage Icelandic, too. In addition, there is a tendency for intonational features typical of Icelandic polar questions to show up in North American English polar questions produced by speakers of heritage Icelandic more often than in North American English polar questions produced by speakers without Icelandic heritage. Focusing on intonation, the present study adds to the evidence for (bidirectional) prosodic interference between a heritage language (here moribund Icelandic) and the dominant language (here North American English).*

Phonological Individuation in a Former Danish Settlement in South Dakota, USA

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-133
Author(s):  
Jan Heegård Petersen
Keyword(s):  
South Dakota ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Significant Degree ◽  
Language Community ◽  
Speech Communities ◽  
Linguistic Repertoire

The article describes the manifestation and distribution of 15 phonological variables in a rural heritage language community in South Dakota, USA. I discuss to what extent dialect convergence has occurred in this former Danish settlement. The data sample encompasses speakers born in Northwest Jutland in Denmark, as well as speakers born in South Dakota to parents who emigrated from Northwest Jutland. The analysis shows that dialectal convergence has not occurred to any significant degree, in spite of what may be expected; speakers born in South Dakota have significantly more dialectal features in their speech than the speakers born in Denmark. The analysis also reveals a sizeable degree of inter-speaker variation within both groups, as well as a considerable variation between the variables with respect to how likely they are to be realized dialectally versus nondialectally. The results are discussed in relation to theories of shared linguistic repertoire and individuation in small speech communities.*

scholarly journals You Take the Low Road and I’ll Take the High Road: Variation in Agreement Structure in Wisconsin Heritage German

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 525-562
Author(s):  
Joshua Bousquette
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
American English ◽  
Control Group ◽  
High Agreement ◽  
English Grammar ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Complementizer Agreement ◽  
Predicting Factor ◽  
Grammatical Structures ◽  
High Road

This article presents on interviews with 10 bilingual speakers of American English and Wisconsin Heritage German (WHG), with respect to their licensing of high (NP1) versus low (NP2) agreement. In terms of linguistic typology, English copular constructions license only NP1 agreement, in which the verb agrees in person and number with the first—or syntactically high—nominal element in the clause; Standard German copular constructions license NP2 agreement with the lower nominal element in the clause (though subsequent topicalization of this element is also licit). As a second variable, a subset (7) of these speakers license complementizer agreement (C-agr) in WHG, which obtains from a second, syntactically high agreement structure in the complementizer field, in addition to the canonical German NP2 structure. These data were compared to a control group of the remaining three WHG speakers who did not license C-agr. Data presented here suggest a bi-directional transfer of both NP1 and NP2 agreement structures for both groups of heritage language (HL) speakers. The control group produced a majority of forms consistent with both English and German language-specific grammars. Evidence of NP2 structures in the control group’s English, however, suggests that these speakers are HL-dominant—since NP2 is categorically prohibited in English. WHG speakers with C-agr, in contrast to the control group, produced a majority of NP1 forms in both languages, with the presence of C-agr being a predicting factor in the presence of NP1 agreement in the English of WHG speakers. It is here argued that the presence of C-agr in the HL is similar to the canonical NP1 structures of Standard English, allowing for overlapping licit NP1 structures in both varieties. Data from Assumed Identify Constructions (AICs) suggests that canonical NP2 agreement in C-agr WHG may have been weakened as a result. This research suggests that even superficially English-like grammar may obtain not from a direct transfer from the L2 into the HL, but rather from the interaction of English grammar with the autochthonous grammatical structures of non-standard HLs.

scholarly journals On expletive subject pronoun drop in Colloquial French

2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHAEL ZIMMERMANN ◽  
GEORG A. KAISER
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Subject Pronouns ◽  
Subject Pronoun ◽  
Syntactic Status ◽  
Inflectional Affixes

ABSTRACTThis paper sets out to contribute to the debate on the morpho-syntactic status of phonologically weak or clitic subject pronouns in Colloquial French by discussing finite impersonal constructions in which the expletive subject pronoun is non-expressed. The paper provides arguments against an approach in terms of inflectional affixes, showing that the non-expression of this pronoun is in fact syntactically restricted. On the basis of the further finding that the non-expression of the expletive represents the continuation of a grammatical trait of older stages of the language in which the non-expression of subject pronouns was generally possible, a tentative proposal is put forward which crucially draws on information structure.

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