Heritage language and linguistic theory

This paper discusses a common reality in many cases of multilingualism: heritage speakers, or unbalanced bilinguals, simultaneous or sequential, who shifted early in childhood from one language (their heritage language) to their dominant language (the language of their speech community). To demonstr...

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Published inFrontiers in psychology Vol. 6; p. 1545
Main Authors Scontras, Gregory, Fuchs, Zuzanna, Polinsky, Maria
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 09.10.2015
Subjects
Morphosyntax
Multilingualism
pragmatics
Psychology
semantics
spanish
syntax
morphosyntax
heritage linguistics
syntax
semantics
pragmatics
experimental methods
multilingualism
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Summary:This paper discusses a common reality in many cases of multilingualism: heritage speakers, or unbalanced bilinguals, simultaneous or sequential, who shifted early in childhood from one language (their heritage language) to their dominant language (the language of their speech community). To demonstrate the relevance of heritage linguistics to the study of linguistic competence more broadly defined, we present a series of case studies on heritage linguistics, documenting some of the deficits and abilities typical of heritage speakers, together with the broader theoretical questions they inform. We consider the reorganization of morphosyntactic feature systems, the reanalysis of atypical argument structure, the attrition of the syntax of relativization, and the simplification of scope interpretations; these phenomena implicate diverging trajectories and outcomes in the development of heritage speakers. The case studies also have practical and methodological implications for the study of multilingualism. We conclude by discussing more general concepts central to linguistic inquiry, in particular, complexity and native speaker competence.
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Edited by: Terje Lohndal, Norwegian University of Science and Technology and UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Norway
Reviewed by: Antonella Sorace, University of Edinburgh, UK; Tania Ionin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
This article was submitted to Language Sciences, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology
ISSN:1664-1078
1664-1078
DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01545