Article published in:
Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism
Vol. 6:3 (2016) ► pp. 227–261

Objects of transitive verbs in Italian as a heritage language in contact with German

| University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
| University of Wuppertal, Germany
| University of Wuppertal, Germany

This paper seeks to close a gap in the ongoing research on heritage languages (HL), their acquisition, and the nature of transfer in HL with a study on a hitherto understudied language combination, namely Italian heritage speakers (HS) raised in Germany with two native languages. The current study compares data from spontaneous speech of these HS with speech data from native speakers of Italian who immigrated to Germany as adults with German as L2, and Italian monolinguals. Analyses of Italian objects reveal that the HS show native knowledge about lexical options of object omissions and their pragmatic identification, and of object clitic use. The results indicate no evidence for covert transfer with regard to Italian object realization types. Finally, the study leads to the conclusion that Italian HS differ in fewer investigated aspects from Italian monolinguals than L1/L2 speakers.

Keywords: adult bilingualism, heritage language, Italian, German, objects, transfer
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Object system in Standard Italian and German
    • 2.1Object realizations
      • 2.1.1Lexical objects
      • 2.1.2Pronominal objects
      • 2.1.3Left and right dislocation
    • 2.2Object omission
  • 3.Research questions and hypotheses
  • 4.Participants
    • 4.1The monolingual Italians
      • 4.1.1Socio-economic factors
    • 4.2The L1/L2 speakers
      • 4.2.1Socio-economic factors
      • 4.2.2Language proficiency
      • 4.2.3Language balance
    • 4.3The Italian HS
      • 4.3.1Socio-economic factors
      • 4.3.2Language proficiency
      • 4.3.3Language balance
  • 5.Methods
    • 5.1Spontaneous speech data
    • 5.2Statistics
  • 6.Results
    • 6.1Description of the results
      • 6.1.1Object realization vs. omission
        • 6.1.1.1Direct objects
        • 6.1.1.2Indirect objects
        • 6.1.1.3Exemplary analysis: omissions with specific verbs
      • 6.1.2Object realization types
        • 6.1.2.1Direct objects
        • 6.1.2.2Indirect objects
      • 6.1.3Clitic placement
        • 6.1.3.1Direct objects
        • 6.1.3.2Indirect objects
    • 6.2Comparative survey of the results
      • 6.2.1Analysis of differences between the monolinguals and the bilinguals
      • 6.2.2Analysis of differences between the L1/L2 speakers and the HS
  • 7.Discussion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 04 May 2016
https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.13041.div
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