scholarly journals (In)felicitous use of subjects in Greek and Spanish in monolingual and contact settings

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aretousa Giannakou ◽  
Ioanna Sitaridou
Keyword(s):  
First Generation ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
First Generation Immigrants ◽  
Oral Production ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Topic Shift ◽  
Subject Pronoun ◽  
Chilean Spanish

This paper focuses on subject distribution in Greek and Chilean Spanish, both null subject languages, as evidenced in the oral production of monolingual and bilingual speakers. Narratives elicited from 40 monolinguals and 76 bilinguals of different types, namely, first-generation immigrants, heritage speakers and L2 speakers, were analysed to explore potential differences in expressing subject reference between the groups in monolingual and contact settings. The qualitative analysis of contexts of topic continuity and topic shift showed no overextension of the scope of the overt subject pronoun, expected to be found in the bilingual performance according to the Interface Hypothesis (Sorace, 2011, 2012) and previous research. The findings also show that the redundancy of lexical subjects observed in topic continuity contexts mostly involved felicitous (pragmatically appropriate) constructions. Moreover, while null subjects in topic shift were also found to be felicitous in both monolinguals and bilinguals, cases of ambiguity were observed in the bilingual performance in this discourse context.

scholarly journals Gender agreement in interface contexts in the oral production of heritage speakers of Spanish in the Netherlands

2014 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 93-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brechje van Osch ◽  
Aafke Hulk ◽  
Petra Sleeman ◽  
Pablo Irizarri van Suchtelen
Keyword(s):  
First Generation ◽  
Error Pattern ◽  
Gender Agreement ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
First Generation Immigrants ◽  
Oral Production ◽  
Pronominal Reference ◽  
Heritage Speakers Of Spanish ◽  
Discourse Interface ◽  
Spanish Heritage Speakers

In this paper we present an analysis of Spanish heritage speakers’ oral production of gender agreement outside the DP as an innovative source of support for the Interface Hypothesis (Sorace & Filiaci 2006). We demonstrate that, besides commonly known factors such as the gender, animacy and morphology of the antecedent, the interface domain in which gender agreement takes place also seems to play a role in how accurately heritage speakers apply gender agreement. Pronominal reference, located at the external syntax-discourse interface, turns out to be more problematic than adjectival predication, which pertains to the internal morpho-syntax interface. Furthermore, we discuss the possibility that, besides the amount of input heritage speakers receive, the quality of this input may also play a role in their gender agreement accuracy, given that the heritage speakers’ error pattern with respect to linguistic factors is very similar to that of first generation immigrants.

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.

scholarly journals Between syntax and discourse

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 396-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oksana Laleko ◽  
Maria Polinsky
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Structural Complexity ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Structure Level ◽  
Different Types ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
The Status ◽  
Different Levels

Abstract This article examines the knowledge of topic and subject particles in heritage speakers and L2 learners of Japanese and Korean. We assume that topic marking is mediated at the syntax-information structure interface, while subject marking pertains to narrow syntax. In comparing phenomena mediated at different levels of linguistic organization, we provide evidence for the hypothesis that information structure-level phenomena present greater challenges for bilingual speakers than those mediated within syntax. While these results may be interpreted as evidence of generalized interface-related deficits, we show that such a global explanation is not supported. Instead, a more nuanced account is developed, based on the recognition of different types of topic (anaphoric, generic, and contrastive) and different types of subject (descriptive and exhaustive). Under the proposed account, non-native speakers’ deficits follow from three unrelated effects: the status of topic as an interface category, structural complexity, and the memory demands necessary for its interpretation in context.

Null subjects, expletives, and the status of Medieval French

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Zimmermann
Keyword(s):  
Frequent Occurrence ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
Subject Pronouns ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Status ◽  
Subject Pronoun ◽  
Embedded Clauses ◽  
Fundamental Insight ◽  
Modern Standard

In view of considerable differences from prototypical null-subject (NS) languages and recent proposals of different types of NS language, this chapter reconsiders the status of Medieval French, generally analysed as a NS language, regarding the NS parameter. It is essentially shown that Medieval French displays traits incompatible with an analysis as a consistent or partial NS language, particularly the existence of overt TP subject expletives, the highly frequent occurrence of overt referential subject pronouns in embedded clauses, and the consistent occurrence of an overt generic subject pronoun. From this and the fundamental insight that, in prototypical non-NS languages such as Modern Standard French, null subjects (NSs) are licit in a restricted number of contexts, the chapter concludes that Medieval French constitutes a non-NS language in which, as in the modern stage, NSs are principally possible in contexts of left-peripheral focalization.

scholarly journals Verbal working memory assessment in Russian-Brazilian Portuguese bilinguals

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. e572
Author(s):  
Aleksandra S. Skorobogatova ◽  
Anna Smirnova Henriques ◽  
Svetlana Ruseishvili ◽  
Irina Sekerina ◽  
Sandra Madureira
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
First Generation Immigrants ◽  
Memory Assessment

In Brazil, the learning of a second language (L2) by native Brazilian Portuguese speakers has been extensively explored, but studies on language processing and language interaction among bilinguals are quite recent. The late bilingualism of the first-generation immigrants has been studied mainly from the perspective of their difficulties in learning Brazilian Portuguese. Brazil has numerous communities of heritage speakers of many languages such as Japanese, German, Italian, Polish, Ukrainian, and Russian. However, the number of studies that focus on the bilingual speech of heritage speakers in Brazil is also quite limited. The aim of the current study is to evaluate the working memory in Russian-Brazilian Portuguese bilinguals as a function of the language and type of bilingualism. For this purpose, 49 first-generation Russophone immigrants and 28 older Russian heritage speakers, all residing in Brazil, were tested in Russian and Portuguese using a Month-Ordering task. We found that the working memory scores of the first-generation Russophone immigrants were not statistically different between both languages, but the median working memory score of the older Russian heritage speakers in Russian was 1.5-fold lower than in Portuguese. As next steps, we plan to verify the relation between the working memory capacity and narrative production abilities of the older Russian heritage-Brazilian Portuguese bilinguals in their heritage and societal languages.

scholarly journals Subject Clitics in Microcontact: A Case Study from Heritage Friulian in Argentina and Brazil

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-36
Author(s):  
Alberto Frasson ◽  
Roberta D’Alessandro ◽  
Brechje van Osch
Keyword(s):  
First Generation ◽  
Third Generation ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
First Generation Immigrants ◽  
Romance Language ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Subject Clitics

Abstract In this paper we present data from first generation immigrants (G1) and second and third generation heritage speakers of Friulian, a Rhaeto-Romance language spoken in North-Eastern Italy and also found in Argentina and Brazil. The target phenomenon is subject clitics (SCL s). We show that SCL s in heritage Friulian are in a process of being reanalyzed from being agreement markers to pronouns. While SCL s are obligatory in Friulian as spoken in Italy, they are often dropped in heritage Friulian in Argentina and Brazil; this phenomenon, we argue, needs to be interpreted as the drop of pronominal subjects, and not of agreement-like SCL s. We also demonstrate that the use of SCL s (reanalyzed as pronominal subjects) is conditioned both by grammatical factors (it happens more in some grammatical persons than in others) and by discourse factors (they are used more in the case of a continuation topic than in other topicalization contexts). This means that in heritage Friulian, discourse constraints on the expression of subjects are not being lost or weakened; in fact, against the general grammaticalization trend of pronominal forms, new discourse constraints are introduced.

Intra-Generational Attrition

2019 ◽  
pp. 445-457
Author(s):  
Fatih Bayram ◽  
Diego Pascual y Cabo ◽  
Jason Rothman
Keyword(s):  
First Generation ◽  
Potential Role ◽  
First Language ◽  
Language Attrition ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
First Generation Immigrants ◽  
Heritage Speaker ◽  
First Language Attrition ◽  
Linguistic Input ◽  
Ultimate Attainment

This chapter contributes to the emerging literature on heritage speaker bilingualism by weighing in on the potential role that intra-generational attrition plays in changing the path of heritage speaker bilingual development. Previous work has generally documented heritage speaker ultimate attainment differences as compared to that of monolingual speakers despite both groups having been native childhood acquirers of the same language. This chapter highlights that fact that some of the ubiquitously noted heritage speaker differences may be ascribed to how the primary linguistic input to which heritage speakers are exposed is qualitatively different or shifting from that which monolingual speakers are exposed to, and in part this is due to a process of trickled down first language attrition in the first generation immigrants.

scholarly journals An Exploratory Study of the Effect of Spanish Immersion Education on the Acquisition of Pronominal Subjects in Child Heritage Speakers

Languages ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Michele Goldin
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Immersion Education ◽  
English Dominant

Studies have found that aspects of grammar that lie at the syntax–pragmatics interface, such as the use of pronominal subjects in null-subject languages, are likely to undergo cross-linguistic influence in bilingual speakers. This study contributes to our understanding of the role of Spanish immersion academic instruction on the comprehension of null subjects in English-dominant, Spanish-heritage children living in the United States. Two groups of bilingual children aged 4 to 7 (those attending a Spanish immersion school and those not) completed an acceptability judgment task in both English and Spanish. English monolingual children and monolingually raised Spanish children of the same ages also completed the task in their respective languages. The findings revealed that children in the Spanish immersion school performed on par with their monolingual peers in Spanish, but accepted significantly more ungrammatical null subjects in English than the other groups. These results suggest that immersion schooling plays a role in extending the English null subject stage in bilingual children due to competing input and cross-linguistic influence.

Subject and object expression in Spanish heritage speakers: A case of morphosyntactic convergence

2004 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
SILVINA MONTRUL
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Loss ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Clitic Doubling ◽  
Oral Production ◽  
Subject And Object ◽  
Heritage Speakers Of Spanish ◽  
Spanish Heritage Speakers

Many simultaneous bilinguals exhibit loss or incomplete acquisition of their heritage language under conditions of exposure and use of the majority language (Silva-Corvalán, 1994, 2003; Polinsky, 1997; Toribio, 2001; Montrul, 2002). Recent work within discourse-functional (Silva-Corvalán 1994) and generative perspectives (Sorace, 2000; Montrul; 2002; Tsimpli, Sorace, Heycock, Filaci and Bouba, 2003, in press) suggests that while syntax proper is impervious to language loss or attrition, syntax-related interfaces like lexical-semantics and discourse-pragmatics are not. This study investigates argument expression in adult simultaneous bilinguals who are heritage speakers of Spanish, because in this language subjects, direct, and indirect objects are regulated by syntactic, pragmatic and semantic factors. It was hypothesized that if language loss affects interface areas of competence more than the purely syntactic domains, then Spanish heritage speakers should display robust knowledge of null subjects as well as object clitics, but variable behavior in the pragmatic distribution of null vs. overt subjects, the a preposition with animate direct objects, and cases of semantically based dative clitic-doubling. Results of an oral production task administered to 24 intermediate and advanced heritage speakers and 20 monolinguals confirmed the hypotheses. With the erosion of pragmatic and semantic features, the grammars of the intermediate proficiency Spanish heritage speakers appear to display morphosyntactic convergence with English in the expression of subject and object arguments.

GRAMMATICAL FEATURES OF EGYPTIAN AND PALESTINIAN ARABIC HERITAGE SPEAKERS’ ORAL PRODUCTION

2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 273-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdulkafi Albirini ◽  
Elabbas Benmamoun ◽  
Eman Saadah
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Word Order ◽  
The United States ◽  
Linguistic Competence ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Oral Production ◽  
Arabic Speakers ◽  
Palestinian Arabic ◽  
Selection Of

This study presents an investigation of oral narratives collected from heritage Egyptian and Palestinian Arabic speakers living in the United States. The focus is on a number of syntactic and morphological features in their production, such as word order, use of null subjects, selection of prepositions, agreement, and possession. The degree of codeswitching in their narratives was also investigated. The goal was to gain some insights into the Arabic linguistic competence of this group of speakers. The results show that although Arabic heritage speakers display significant competence in their heritage colloquial varieties, there are gaps in that knowledge. There also seems to be significant transfer from English, their dominant language.

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