Let’s fix it? Cross-linguistic influence in word order patterns of Russian heritage speakers in Germany

Brehmer, Bernhard; Usanova, Irina

doi:10.1075/hsld.4.08bre

Cited by 7 publications

(18 citation statements)

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“…Some areas show both differences and similarities with MSs’ productions. For instance, Brehmer and Usanova (2015) report that verb placement in heritage Russian in Germany is different in SCs compared to monolingual Russian, with an increase in use of the verb in clause-final position, which would be an expected transfer from German. However, main clauses in heritage Russian do not feature more use of the verb in second position (V2, required in German) than those in monolingual Russian.…”

Section: Theoretical and Conceptual Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deconstructing the Native Speaker: Further Evidence From Heritage Speakers for Why This Horse Should Be Dead!

et al. 2021

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The category “native speaker” is flawed because it fails to consider the diversity between the speaker groups falling under its scope, as highlighted in previous literature. This paper provides further evidence by focusing on the similarities and differences between heritage speakers (HSs) and monolingually-raised speakers (MSs) of their heritage and majority languages. HSs are bilinguals who acquire a family (heritage) language and a societal (majority) language in early childhood. Naturalistic exposure from early childhood qualifies them as native speakers of their heritage language. Some HSs are simultaneous bilinguals, which makes them native speakers of their majority language as well. Others are early second language acquirers who may be indistinguishable from simultaneous bilinguals. Previous research shows that the heritage language productions of German HSs in the United States do not completely overlap with those of German MSs, who are, by default, native speakers. In overall clause type selection (independent main, coordinate main, and subordinate), the HSs differ from German MSs in German but are similar to English MSs in English. The present study examines the distribution of finite subordinate clauses and their types (relative, complement, and adverbial) across registers in 27 adolescent HSs of German in the United States, compared to 32 adolescent MSs of German and 32 MSs of English. All participants described a short video in two settings (formal/informal) and two modes (spoken/written). Results demonstrate that, even with respect to a specific phenomenon (subordinate clauses), HSs show similarities and differences to MSs of both languages. Concerning the distribution of subordinate clause types, HSs behave similarly to both English and German MSs. Concerning subordinate clauses in general, HSs use them less frequently than MSs in German. In English, the difference is more nuanced: HSs differentiate between settings in both modes, while MSs do so only in the written mode. This indicates that the category “native speaker” is not a meaningful descriptor since it covers speakers with varying production patterns. We propose that studies including native speakers should assure transparency and replicability of research by specifying and taking into account speaker characteristics such as bilingualism, proficiency, exposure and dominance.

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Section: Theoretical and Conceptual Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deconstructing the Native Speaker: Further Evidence From Heritage Speakers for Why This Horse Should Be Dead!

et al. 2021

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“…Take a look at the following example from Brehmer and Usanova (2015, p. 176) In example (4), the verb rasskazali 'told' is placed clause-finally, which is unexpected regarding the information structure since the verb receives the main prominence which is not required in the current context. Brehmer and Usanova (2015) suggest that the PP "about our testing of the boomerang" is rather new information here and is expected to appear clausefinally.…”

Section: Word Order In Heritage Russianmentioning

confidence: 80%

“…Overall, HSs in Germany were found to show a high degree of word order variation in their HL. HSs in Germany were further found to be similar to monolingual speakers regarding some aspects of word order (V2 structures in main clauses), but the former differed from the latter regarding some other aspects (V-final word orders in embedded and main clauses) (Brehmer & Usanova, 2015). HSs in the US, on the other hand, were typically found to increase the use of the SVO order and show a less flexible word order than monolingual speakers (Laleko & Dubinina, 2018;Polinsky, 2006;Isurin & Ivanova-Sullivan, 2008;Isurin, 2005).…”

Section: Word Order In Heritage Russianmentioning

confidence: 80%

“…Language skills of HSs of Russian were reported to differ from those of the monolingual speakers and those of L2 learners of Russian (Romanova, 2008;Laleko, 2019). Several studies reveal that starting from the second generation of migrants heritage Russian undergoes significant changes in lexicon (Polinsky, 2006;Isurin, 2011;Gagarina, 2011;Klassert et al, 2014), nominal morphosyntax (Polinsky, 2006(Polinsky, , 2008aGagarina, 2011;Laleko, 2018), verbal morphology (Romanova, 2008), aspectual system (Gagarina et al, 2020;Polinsky, 2006Polinsky, , 2008bAnstatt, 2008;Laleko, 2010Laleko, , 2011Laleko, , 2015 as well as pro-drop constructions (Isurin, 2011;Dubinina & Polinsky, 2013) and word order (Polinsky, 2011;Brehmer & Usanova, 2015;Laleko & Dubinina, 2018). The present study aims at contributing to the growing research on heritage Russian in the domain of syntax.…”

Section: Heritage Speakers and Heritage Russianmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies on word order of HSs of Russian in Germany are scarce. The study by Brehmer and Usanova (2015) tested 20 HSs of Russian residing in Germany (mean age of 15.35) and age-matched monolingual Russian speakers. However, the sample used in the study was rather heterogeneous regarding the AoO of majority German and instruction in Russian, since only 6 HSs in the sample were born in Germany, 10 HSs migrated to Germany before having entered school (mean age upon arrival 4.7), and 4 participants have already attended school in the countries of their origin (mean age upon arrival 10.5).…”

Section: Word Order In Heritage Russianmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Word order in heritage Russian: clause type and majority language matter

Zuban

Martynova²,

Zerbian

et al. 2021

Russ Linguist

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Heritage speakers (HSs) are known to differ from monolingual speakers in various linguistic domains. The present study focuses on the syntactic properties of monolingual and heritage Russian. Using a corpus of semi-spontaneous spoken and written narratives produced by HSs of Russian residing in the US and Germany, we investigate HSs’ word order patterns and compare them to monolingual speakers of Russian from Saint Petersburg. Our results show that the majority language (ML) of HSs as well as the clause type contribute to observed differences in word order patterns between speaker groups. Specifically, HSs in Germany performed similarly to monolingual speakers of Russian while HSs in the US generally produced more SVO and less OVS orders than the speakers of the latter group. Furthermore, HSs in the US produced more SVO orders than both monolingual speakers and HSs in Germany in embedded clauses, but not in main clauses. The results of the study are discussed with the reference to the differences between main and embedded clauses as well as the differences between the MLs of the HSs.

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Heritage Languages and Their Speakers

Polinsky

2018

455

137

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Let’s fix it? Cross-linguistic influence in word order patterns of Russian heritage speakers in Germany

Cited by 7 publications

References 30 publications

Deconstructing the Native Speaker: Further Evidence From Heritage Speakers for Why This Horse Should Be Dead!

Deconstructing the Native Speaker: Further Evidence From Heritage Speakers for Why This Horse Should Be Dead!

Word order in heritage Russian: clause type and majority language matter

Heritage Languages and Their Speakers

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