Stability and attrition in American Norwegian nominals: a view from predicate nouns

Abstract

This study investigates the extent to which speakers of American Norwegian (AmNo), a heritage language spoken in the United States and Canada, use the indefinite article in classifying predicate constructions ('He is (a) doctor'). Despite intense contact with English, which uses the indefinite article, most AmNo speakers have retained bare nouns, i.e., the pattern of Norwegian as spoken in Norway. However, a minority of the speakers use the indefinite article to some extent. I argue that generally, this use of the indefinite article has arisen through attrition (i.e., a change during the lifetime of individuals), not through divergent attainment causing systematic, parametric change in the Norwegian grammar of these speakers. I also argue that representational economy is one of the factors that may have contributed to the relative stability of bare nouns.

Pronominal demonstratives in homeland and heritage Scandinavian

“…In formal syntactic terms, there is no reason to posit any special structures for AmNo. This is in line with previous studies which suggest a relatively high degree of stability in the structure of AmNo nominals (see Anderssen et al 2018, Kinn 2020a, van Baal 2020).…”

“…Sorace 2011 and further discussion in Section 4). Thus, one might expect to see changes in the use of PDs, although previous studies suggest a relatively high degree of stability in the structure of heritage Scandinavian nominals (see Anderssen et al 2018, Kinn 2020a, van Baal 2020.…”

Language history on fast forward: Innovations in heritage languages and diachronic change

“…Another example where language contact seems to have accelerated the expansion of the indefinite articles comes from American Norwegian (AmNo), a heritage language spoken in the United States and Canada (Kinn, 2020). Homeland Norwegian (European Norwegian) allows bare, singular nouns in some contexts where English does not.…”

Mismatches at the syntax-semantics interface: The case of non-finite complementation in American Norwegian

“…A key question here is whether the patterns of non-finite complementation are more characteristic of attrition or some degree of divergent attainment (related to RQ2). The high degree of intra-speaker variation and the fact that the predominant pattern found in the AmNo data resemble homeland Norwegian-like complementation strategies suggest that we are observing behavior more typical of attrition rather than divergent attainment (Polinsky, 2018, 28) (see Kinn (2020) for similar arguments for predicate nominals in AmNo). Although we are not likely dealing with divergent attainment in this domain (yet), there are two reasons why these findings are significant for current theorizing concerning the syntax of heritage grammars: First, the AmNo data do not reveal a collective pattern of significant language loss with respect to non-finite complementation options (or in other domains of grammar).…”