scholarly journals Metalinguistic Intuitions and Dominant Language Transfer in Heritage Spanish Syllabification

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 288-307
Author(s):  
Michael Shelton ◽  
David Counselman ◽  
Nicolás Gutiérrez Palma
Keyword(s):  
English Translation ◽  
Language Transfer ◽  
Transfer Effects ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Dominant Language ◽  
Heritage Speaker ◽  
Paper And Pencil ◽  
Vocalic Sequences ◽  
Heritage Speakers Of Spanish ◽  
English Heritage

While heritage speakers of Spanish have been shown to differ from monolingual speakers along many morphosyntactic lines, comparatively few studies in heritage linguistics have focused on phonology. To test whether the knowledge of English phonotactics would influence Spanish-English heritage speaker syllabification patterns in Spanish, 29 heritage and 29 monolingual speakers of Spanish completed a paper-and-pencil syllabification task in which they divided 80 Spanish words into syllables. Stimuli were controlled for comparisons between Spanish and English phonotactic constraints. Specific attention was placed on the syllabification of vocalic sequences as diphthongs or hiatus. Based on the distribution of diphthongs in English, and the findings of cognate effects in a similar study by Zárate-Sández (2011), heritage speakers were predicted to break diphthongs into hiatus more often in cognates than noncognates, more often when the English translation of a cognate presented hiatus, more in rising diphthongs than in falling diphthongs, and more often when a rising diphthong contained a palatal rather than velar glide. These effects were all present in heritage speaker results. No significant effects were found for monolingual controls. These findings offer new data to the understudied field of heritage phonology and to the ongoing discussion of dominant language transfer effects.

Metalinguistic Intuitions and Dominant Language Transfer in Heritage Spanish Syllabification

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 288-306
Author(s):  
Michael Shelton ◽  
David Counselman ◽  
Nicolás Gutiérrez Palma
Keyword(s):  
English Translation ◽  
Language Transfer ◽  
Transfer Effects ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Dominant Language ◽  
Heritage Speaker ◽  
Paper And Pencil ◽  
Vocalic Sequences ◽  
Heritage Speakers Of Spanish

While heritage speakers of Spanish have been shown to differ from monolingual speakers along many morphosyntactic lines, comparatively few studies in heritage linguistics have focused on phonology. To test whether the knowledge of English phonotactics would influence SpanishEnglish heritage speaker syllabification patterns in Spanish, 29 heritage and 29 monolingual speakers of Spanish completed a paper-and-pencil syllabification task in which they divided 80 Spanish words into syllables. Stimuli were controlled for comparisons between Spanish and English phonotactic constraints. Specific attention was placed on the syllabification of vocalic sequences as diphthongs or hiatus. Based on the distribution of diphthongs in English, and the findings of cognate effects in a similar study by Zárate-Sández (2011), heritage speakers were predicted to break diphthongs into hiatus more often in cognates than noncognates, more often when the English translation of a cognate presented hiatus, more in rising diphthongs than in falling diphthongs, and more often when a rising diphthong contained a palatal rather than velar glide. These effects were all present in heritage speaker results. No significant effects were found for monolingual controls. These findings offer new data to the understudied field of heritage phonology and to the ongoing discussion of dominant language transfer effects.

Dominant language transfer in adult second language learners and heritage speakers

2010 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 293-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvina Montrul
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Language Transfer ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Transfer Effects ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Dominant Language ◽  
L2 Learners

The effects of language transfer have been amply documented in second language (L2) acquisition and, to a lesser extent, in the language contact/loss literature (Cook, 2003). In both cases, the stronger and often dominant language encroaches into the structure of the less dominant language in systematic ways. But are transfer effects in these two situations comparable: is first language (L1) influence in adult L2 learners similar to L2 influence in the L1 of early bilinguals? The current study addresses this question by investigating knowledge of Spanish clitics, clitic left dislocations, and differential object marking (DOM) in 72 L2 learners and 67 Spanish heritage speakers. The contact language, English, is assumed to not instantiate these syntactic properties. Results of an oral production task and a written acceptability judgment task indicated overall advantages for the heritage speakers in some areas, but similar effects of transfer from English in the two groups. Transfer effects were less pronounced with core aspects of grammar (syntax proper in the case of clitics) than with aspects of grammar that lie at the interfaces of syntax and semantics/pragmatics, as in the case of clitic left dislocations and DOM. These findings have implications for current views on the vulnerability of certain linguistic interfaces in language development (Sorace, 2004; Serratrice et al., 2004; Tsimpli and Sorace, 2006; White, 2009) and for theories that stress the role of age in L2 acquisition and permanent transfer effects.

Sentence comprehension in heritage language: Isomorphism, word order, and language transfer

2021 ◽  
pp. 026765832199790
Author(s):  
Anna Chrabaszcz ◽  
Elena Onischik ◽  
Olga Dragoy
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Language Transfer ◽  
Processing Strategy ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Dominant Language ◽  
Sequence Of Events ◽  
Linguistic Transfer

This study examines the role of cross-linguistic transfer versus general processing strategy in two groups of heritage speakers ( n = 28 per group) with the same heritage language – Russian – and typologically different dominant languages: English and Estonian. A group of homeland Russian speakers ( n = 36) is tested to provide baseline comparison. Within the framework of the Competition model (MacWhinney, 2012), cross-linguistic transfer is defined as reliance on the processing cue prevalent in the heritage speaker’s dominant language (e.g. word order in English) for comprehension of heritage language. In accordance with the Isomorphic Mapping Hypothesis (O’Grady and Lee, 2005), the general processing strategy is defined in terms of isomorphism as a linear alignment between the order of the sentence constituents and the temporal sequence of events. Participants were asked to match pictures on the computer screen with auditorily presented sentences. Sentences included locative or instrumental constructions, in which two cues – word order (basic vs. inverted) and isomorphism mapping (isomorphic vs. nonisomorphic) – were fully crossed. The results revealed that (1) Russian native speakers are sensitive to isomorphism in sentence processing; (2) English-dominant heritage speakers experience dominant language transfer, as evidenced by their reliance primarily on the word order cue; (3) Estonian-dominant heritage speakers do not show significant effects of isomorphism or word order but experience significant processing costs in all conditions.

Selective vulnerability and dominant language transfer in the acquisition of the Chinese cleft construction by heritage speakers

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-227
Author(s):  
Ziyin Mai ◽  
Xiangjun Deng
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Selective Vulnerability ◽  
Language Transfer ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Dominant Language ◽  
Different Types

Abstract This study investigates effects of selective vulnerability and dominant language transfer in heritage grammar. Mandarin Chinese has a shì…de cleft construction, which, despite its superficial similarities with the it-cleft in English, is subject to additional conditions. Four experimental tasks elicited eighteen adult heritage speakers’ implicit knowledge of the word order and the temporal, telicity and discourse conditions associated with the Chinese cleft. The heritage speakers demonstrated target-like representation of the conditions. Meanwhile, their sensitivity to the telicity and discourse conditions is weaker than that of native speakers in Beijing, suggesting selective vulnerability in the heritage grammar. By comparing the heritage speakers with adult second language learners of Chinese, we concluded that the vulnerability of the heritage grammar in the discourse domain did not result from cross-linguistic influence from English. In different types of Chinese-English bilinguals, the dominant language affects the weaker language in different ways.

Vulnerability and Cross-linguistic Influence in Heritage Spanish: Comparing Different Majority Languages

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 340-366
Author(s):  
Brechje van Osch
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Dominant Group ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Heritage Speaker ◽  
Interesting Difference ◽  
Specific Vulnerability ◽  
Heritage Speakers Of Spanish ◽  
English Dominant

This paper compares Dutch-dominant and English-dominant heritage speakers of Spanish regarding their sensitivity to the various factors that play a role in subject position. An acceptability judgment task and an elicited production task demonstrated that both groups were sensitive to the effect of verb type on word order, but not to the effect of focus. To account for the specific vulnerability of focus, several possible accounts are proposed. An interesting difference occurred between the two heritage speaker groups regarding their knowledge of the effect of definiteness on word order. The Dutch-dominant group outperformed the English dominant group in this condition, arguably helped by the similarity between Dutch and Spanish regarding the definiteness effect on word order. This finding shows that properties inherent to the heritage language and cross-linguistic influence from the majority language are both crucial elements in explaining vulnerability in heritage grammars.

When L1 becomes an L3: Do heritage speakers make better L3 learners?

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARIA POLINSKY
Keyword(s):  
Classroom Instruction ◽  
Factor Model ◽  
Classroom Setting ◽  
Transfer Effects ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Dominant Language ◽  
Important Group ◽  
L3 Acquisition ◽  
Global Advantage ◽  
The Prestige

Heritage speakers who re-learn their childhood language in adulthood are an important group for the study of L3 acquisition. Such re-learners have selective advantages over other L2/L3 learners in phonetics/phonology, but lack a global advantage at re-learning the prestige variety of their L1. These learners show asymmetrical transfer effects in morphosyntax: transfer occurs only from the dominant language. Two tentative explanations for this asymmetry are suggested. First, re-learners may deploy the skills acquired in a classroom setting, where they have used only their dominant language. Second, re-learners may implicitly strive to increase the typological distance between their childhood language and the language of classroom instruction. These findings have implications for models of L3/Ln learning: the Cumulative Enhancement Model, the Typological Proximity Model, and the L2 Status Factor Model. The data discussed in this paper are most consistent with the latter model, but they also highlight the significance of the typological distance between languages under acquisition.

Interlingual influence in bilingual speech: Cognate status effect in a continuum of bilingualism

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 517-530 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARK AMENGUAL
Keyword(s):  
English Learners ◽  
English Translation ◽  
Lexical Representation ◽  
Exemplar Model ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Status Effect ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
Cross Language ◽  
Spanish Heritage Speakers ◽  
English Heritage

The present study investigates voice onset times (VOTs) to determine if cognates enhance the cross-language phonetic influences in the speech production of a range of Spanish–English bilinguals: Spanish heritage speakers, English heritage speakers, advanced L2 Spanish learners, and advanced L2 English learners. To answer this question, lexical items with considerable phonological, semantic, and orthographic overlap (cognates) and lexical items with no phonological overlap with their English translation equivalents (non-cognates) were examined. The results indicate that there is a significant effect of cognate status in the Spanish production of VOT by Spanish–English bilinguals. These bilinguals produced /t/ with longer VOT values (more English-like) in the Spanish production of cognates compared to non-cognate words. It is proposed that the exemplar model of lexical representation (Bybee, 2001; Pierrehumbert, 2001) can be extended to include bilingual lexical connections by which cognates facilitate phonetic interference in the bilingual mental lexicon.

Spanish heritage speakers in the Netherlands: Linguistic patterns in the judgment and production of mood

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 513-529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brechje van Osch ◽  
Petra Sleeman
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Production Task ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Heritage Speaker ◽  
Oral Production ◽  
Subjunctive Mood ◽  
Mixed Effects Modeling ◽  
The Us ◽  
Heritage Speakers Of Spanish

Purpose: This study investigates heritage speakers of Spanish in the Netherlands regarding their knowledge of Spanish mood. Previous research has demonstrated that heritage speakers of Spanish in the US have problems with mood, especially subjunctive mood and particularly in contexts where choice of mood is variable and depends on semantic and pragmatic factors. Moreover, heritage speakers are often reported to experience fewer problems with oral production tasks tapping into implicit knowledge than with judgment tasks targeting metalinguistic knowledge. This study aims to investigate whether these patterns can be confirmed for heritage speakers of Spanish in the Netherlands. Methodology: In all, 17 heritage speakers from the Netherlands and 18 monolingual speakers of Spanish completed a contextualized elicited production task. Each item contained a context targeting either indicative or subjunctive mood. Below each context followed the beginning of a sentence which the participants were instructed to complete. Both obligatory and variable uses of mood were included. The results were compared to findings from a contextualized scalar acceptability judgment task described in an earlier study using the same conditions and the same participants. Data and analysis: All responses were coded as felicitous or infelicitous given the accompanying context and were analyzed using mixed effects modeling. The results demonstrate that the heritage speakers are less accurate in their choice of mood than monolingual speakers, particularly on subjunctive mood and in variable contexts. Furthermore, heritage speakers deviated more from the monolingual patterns in the production task than in the judgment task. Findings/conclusion: These results confirm several patterns attested for heritage speakers of Spanish in the US, namely the increased vulnerability of subjunctive mood and in contexts where mood is not obligatorily selected. However, in contrast to previous literature, this study reports better performance on a metalinguistic judgment task than on an oral production task. This finding is attributed to differences in societal circumstances between both heritage speaker populations. Implications of the research: This study confirms the heterogeneity of heritage speakers as a population and emphasizes the importance of taking societal circumstances into consideration.

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