Cover not available
Article published In:
Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism
Vol. 9:3 (2019) ► pp.341–375

Derivational complexity vs. transfer effects

Long-distance wh-movement in heritage and L2 grammars

| Technische Universität Braunschweig
| Pennsylvania State University
| Pennsylvania State University

We investigate whether non-target wh-questions in heritage Low German and L2 English speakers are due primarily to cross-linguistic transfer or the reduction of grammatical complexity in developing grammars as modelled by the Derivational Complexity Hypothesis (DCH, Jakubowicz 2005). Previous research shows that complex (i.e. cross-clausal) wh-dependencies pose more difficulty to child L1 and adult L2 learners than monoclausal dependencies (Jakubowicz & Strik, 2008; Schulz, 2011; Slavkov, 2015). To avoid complex dependencies, learners often use medial constructions where the wh-item surfaces once at the left periphery of the embedded CP and a second time at the left periphery of the matrix clause. Medial-wh is ungrammatical in English, though possible in German and its varieties, e.g. the low German Plautdietsch. In this study, we investigate the linguistic behavior of twelve (n = 12) bilingual Plautdietsch-English speakers in Southwestern Kansas, analyzing their production and judgments of wh-questions in both languages. In production and judgment tasks, we find that, in the L1, only heritage speakers produced medial-wh, while in L2 English, only late L2 learners produced medial-wh. This pattern cannot be due to transfer, since speakers produce medial-wh in only one of their languages. Instead, medial-wh surfaces as a mechanism to reduce syntactic complexity in the less dominant language, irrespective of whether it is the L1 or the L2 or whether it was acquired early or late. We argue that the DCH can account for grammatical restructuring in both heritage L1 speakers and late L2 speakers and discuss its potential as a metric of incomplete acquisition and attrition in bilingual syntax.

Keywords: heritage language acquisition, L2 acquisition, syntax, wh-questions, cross-linguistic influence
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2. Wh-dependencies in heritage grammars and in L2 acquisition
    • 2.1 Wh-dependencies
    • 2.2 Wh-movement in heritage and L2 acquisition: Effects of complexity
  • 3.Research question and hypotheses
  • 4.Methods
    • 4.1Participants
    • 4.2Tasks
    • 4.3Procedure
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1Production task
    • 5.2Acceptability judgment task
  • 6.Discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 9 January 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.17014.hop
References
Bar-Shalom, E. G., & Zaretsky, E.
(2008) Selective attrition in Russian-English bilingual children: Preservation of grammatical aspect. International Journal of Bilingualism, 12(4), 281–302. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bayer, J.
(1996) Directionality and Logical Form. Dordrecht: Kluwer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Benmamoun, E., Montrul, S., & Polinsky, M.
(2013) Heritage languages and their speakers: Opportunities and challenges for linguistics. Theoretical Linguistics, 39(3–4), 129–181.Google Scholar
Berwick, R. & Weinberg, A.
(1984) Grammars and models of language use: The grammatical basis of linguistic performance. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Bousquette, J., Frey, B., Nützel, D., Putnam, M., & Salmons, J.
(2016) Parasitic gapping in bilingual grammar: evidence from Wisconsin Heritage German. Heritage Language Journal, 13(1), 1–28.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N.
(1965) Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
(1981) Lectures on government and binding. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
(1995) The minimalist program. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Christiansen, M., & Chater, N.
(2016) Creating language: Integrating evolution, acquisition, and processing. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Clements, G., McCloskey, J., Maling, J., & Zaenen, A.
(1983) String-vacuous rule application. Linguistic Inquiry, 14(1), 1–17.Google Scholar
Cox, C.
(2013) The resilient word: Linguistic preservation and innovation among Old Colony Mennonites in Latin America. Journal of Mennonites Studies, 31(1), 51–74.Google Scholar
van Craenenbroeck, J.
(2010) Complex wh-phrases don’t move: One the interaction between the Split CP Hypothesis and the syntax of wh-movement. In E. Phoevos Panagiotidis (Ed.), The complementizer phrase: Subjects and operators (236–260). Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Culicover, P.
(2013) Grammar and complexity: Language at the intersection of competence and performance. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dussias, P. E., & Sagarra, N.
(2007) The effect of exposure on syntactic parsing in Spanish–English bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 10(01), 101–116. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ecke, P.
(2008) Language attrition and theories of forgetting: A cross-disciplinary view. International Journal of Bilingualism, 8(3), 321–354. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Engdahl, E.
(2001) Parasitic gaps. In P. Culicover & P. Postal (Eds.), Parasitic gaps (69–98). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press (Reprinted from Linguistic Philosophy, 61, 5–34 1983).Google Scholar
Erdem, U.
(2015) Fragen mit langer w-Extraktion in der englischen Sprache – Ein Vergleich zwischen deutschen und türkischen Muttersprachlern. Unpublished MA thesis, University of Mannheim.Google Scholar
Fanselow, G., & Mahajan, A.
(2000) Towards a minimalist theory of wh-expletives, wh-copying, and successive cyclicity. In U. Lutz, G. Müller, & A. von Stechow (Eds.), Wh-scope marking (195–230). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Felser, C.
(2004) Wh-copying, phases, and successive cyclicity. Lingua, 1141, 543–574. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fodor, J. A. & Garrett, M. F.
(1967) Some syntactic determinants of sentential complexity. Perception and Psychophysics, 21, 289–296. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grohe, L., Schulz, P., & Müller, A.
(2011) How children „Copy” long-distance structures: The production of complex Wh-questions in German. Proceedings of the 35th annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, 233–245.Google Scholar
Grosjean, F.
(2008) Studying bilinguals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gürel, A.
(2007) (Psycho)linguistic determinants of L1 attrition. In: B. Köpke, M. Schmid, M. Keijzer, & S. Dosterst (Eds.), Language attrition: Theoretical perspectives (99–120). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2015) First language attrition of constraints on wh-scrambling: Does the second language have an effect? International Journal of Bilingualism, 19(1), 75–91. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gutiérrez, M. J.
(2005) The acquisition of English LD wh-questions by Basque/Spanish bilingual subjects in a school context (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of the Basque Country, Leioa, Spain.Google Scholar
Hawkins, J.
(2004) Efficiency and complexity in grammars. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hawkins, R.
(2001) Second language syntax: A generative introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Hopp, H.
(2010) Ultimate attainment in L2 inflection: Performance similarities between non-native and native speakers. Lingua, 120(4), 901–931. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hopp, H., & Putnam, M.
(2015) Syntactic restructuring in heritage grammars: Word order variation in Moundridge Schweitzer German. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 5(2), 180–214. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Höhle, T.
(2000) The w…construction: appositive or scope indicating? In: U. Lutz, G. Müller, & A. von Stechow (Eds.), Wh-scope marking (249–270). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hulk, A. C. J., & Zuckerman, S.
(2000) The interaction between input and economy: Acquiring optionality in French wh-questions. Boston University Conference on Language Development. Proceedings (Vol. 241).Google Scholar
Jackendoff, R., & Wittenberg, E.
in press). Linear grammar as a possible stepping-stone in the evolution of language. Psychon Bull Review.
Jakubowicz, C.
(2004) Is movement costly? Paper presented at The JEL conference (Journee d’Etudes Linguistiques), Nantes.
(2005) The language faculty: (Ab)normal development and interface constraints. Paper presented at Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition, Siena.
(2011) Measuring derivational complexity: New evidence from typically developing and SLI learners of L1 French. Lingua, 121(3), 339–351. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jakubowicz, C., & Strik, N.
(2008) Scope-marking strategies in the acquisition of long distance wh-questions in French and Dutch. Language and Speech, 51(1&2), 101–132. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Johnston, M.
(1985) Syntactic and morphological progression in learner English. Canberra: Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs.Google Scholar
Kandybowicz, J.
(2009) Embracing edges: syntactic and phono-syntactic edge sensitivity in Nupe. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 271, 305–344. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kaufmann, G.
(2015) Rare phenomena revealing basic syntactic mechanisms: The case of unexpected verb-object sequences in Mennonite Low German. In A. Adli, M. García García & G. Kaufmann (Eds.), Variation in Language: System-and Usage-based Approaches, 501 (113–146). Berlin/Boston: Walter De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kim, J. -H., Montrul, S., & Yoon, J.
(2009) Binding interpretation of anaphors in Korean heritage speakers. Language Acquisition, 161, 3–35. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Keel, W. D.
(2006) Deitsch, Däätsch, Düütsch, and Dietsch: the varieties of Kansas German dialects after 150 years of German group settlement in Kansas. In J. R. Brown & L. Hopkins (Eds.), Preserving Heritage: A Festschrift for C. Richard Beam (27–48). Society for German-American Studies with the support of the Max Kade Center for German-American Studies and the Joyce and Elizabeth Hall Center for the Humanities.Google Scholar
Köpke, B.
(2007) Language attrition at the crossroads of brain, mind, and society. In B. Köpke, M. S. Schmid, M. Keijzer, & S. Dostert (Eds.), Language attrition: Theoretical perspectives (9–38). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Köpke, B., & Schmid, M. S.
(2004) Language attrition. First language attrition: Interdisciplinary perspectives on methodological issues, 28(1). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kupisch, T., & Rothman, J.
(2016) Terminology matters! Why difference is not incompleteness and how early child bilinguals are heritage speakers. International Journal of Bilingualism. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lewis, S. & Phillips, C.
(2015) Aligning grammatical theories and language processing models. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 44(1), 27–46, DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Liceras, J. M., De La Fuente, A. A., & Walsh, L.
(2011) Complex wh-questions in non-native Spanish and non-native German: Does input matter. Selected Proceedings of the 13th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, 139–149.Google Scholar
Marantz, A.
(2005) Generative linguistics within the cognitive neuroscience of language. The Linguistic Review, 221, 429–45. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McCloskey, J.
(1979) Model-theoretic semantics and transformational grammar. Dordrecht: Reidel. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2002) Resumption, successive cyclicity, and the locality of operations. In S. D. Epstein & T. D. Seely (Eds.), Derivation and explanation in the minimalist program (184–226). Oxford: Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McDaniel, D.
(1986) Conditions on wh-chains. PhD dissertation, City University of New York (CUNY).Google Scholar
(1989) Partial and multiple wh-extraction. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 71, 565–604. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McDaniel, D., Chiu, B., & Maxfield, T.
(1995) Parameters for wh-movement types: evidence from child English. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 131, 709–753. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McDonald, J. L.
(2006) Beyond the critical period: Processing-based explanations for poor grammaticality judgment performance by late second language learners. Journal of Memory and Language, 551, 381–401. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Moelleken, W. W.
(1987) Die rußlanddeutschen Mennoniten in Kanada und Mexiko: sprachliche Entwicklung und diglossische Situation. Zeitschrift für Dialektologie und Linguistik, 145–183.Google Scholar
Montrul, S.
(2002) Incomplete acquisition and attrition of Spanish tense/aspect distinctions in adult bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and cognition, 5(01), 39–68. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2008) Incomplete acquisition in bilingualism: Re-examining the age factor. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2009) Incomplete acquisition of tense-aspect and mood in Spanish heritage language speakers. International Journal of Bilingualism, 131, 239–269. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2016) The acquisition of heritage languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Montrul, S., Foote, R., & Peripñán, S.
(2008) Knowledge of wh-movement in Spanish L2 learners and heritage speakers. In M. Almazán, J. Bruhn de Garavito, & E. Valenzuela (Eds.), Selected Papers from the 8th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium (93–106). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Odlin, T.
(1989) Language transfer: Cross-linguistic influence in language learning. Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
O’Grady, W., Lee, M., & Choo, M.
(2001) The acquisition of relative clauses by heritage and and non-heritage learners of Korean as a second language: A comparative study. Journal of Korean Language Education, 121, 283–294.Google Scholar
Pascual, D. y Cabo, D., & Gómez Soler, I.
(2015) Preposition stranding in Spanish as a heritage language. Heritage Language Journal, 12(2), 186–209.Google Scholar
Pascual, D. y Cabo, D. & Rothman, J.
(2012) The (il)logical problem of heritage speaker bilingualism and incomplete acquisition. Applied Linguistics, 33(4), 450–455. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pavlenko, A., & Jarvis, S.
(2002) Bidirectional transfer. Applied Linguistics, 23(2), 190–214. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Peirce, J. W.
(2007) PsychoPy – Psychophysics software in Python. Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 162(1–2), 8–13. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Phillips, C.
(1996) Order and structure. Unpublished PhD thesis, MIT, MA, USA.Google Scholar
Pires, A. & Rothman, J.
(2009) Disentangling sources of incomplete acquisition: An explanation for competence divergence across heritage grammars. International Journal of Bilingualism, 13(2), 211–238. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Polinsky, M.
(2006) Incomplete acquisition: American Russian. Journal of Slavic Linguistics, 141, 191–262.Google Scholar
(2008) Heritage language narratives. In D. Brinton, O. Kagan, & S. Bauckus (Eds.), Heritage language education. A new field emerging (149–164). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
(2009) What breaks in A- and A-bar chains under incomplete acquisition. Poster, presentation at CUNY Sentence Process Conference. UC Davis 2009.Google Scholar
(2011) Reanalysis in adult heritage language. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 331, 305–328. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Polinsky, M., & Kagan, O.
(2007) Heritage languages: In the ‘wild’ and in the classroom. Language and Linguistics Compass, 11, 368–395. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pozzan, L., & Quirk, E.
(2014) Second language acquisition of English questions: An elicited production study. Applied Psycholinguistics, 35(06), 1055–1086. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Prévost, P., Strik, N., & Tuller, L.
(2014) Wh-questions in child L2 French: Derivational complexity and its interactions with L1 properties, length of exposure, age of exposure, and the input. Second Language Research, 30(2), 225–250. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Putnam, M., & Salmons, J.
(2013) Losing their (passive) voice: Syntactic neutralization in heritage German. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 3(2), 233–252. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Putnam, M., & Sánchez, L.
(2013) What’s so incomplete about incomplete acquisition? – A prolegomenon to modeling heritage language grammars. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 3(4), 478–508. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Putnam, M., & Arnbjörnsdóttir, B.
(2015) Minimizing (interface) domains: The loss of long-distance binding in North American Icelandic. In B. R. Page & M. Putnam (Eds.), Moribund Germanic heritage languages in North America: Theoretical perspectives and empirical findings (203–223). Leiden: Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Putnam, M., & Salmons, J.
(2015) Multilingualism in the Midwest: How German has shaped (and still shapes) the Midwest. Middle West Review, 1(2), 29–52. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rankin, T.
(2013) Competing grammars in the comprehension of questions and relative clauses in L1 German-L2 English. In Cabrelli Amaro, J. et al.. (eds.). Proceedings of the 12th Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition Conference (GASLA 2013). (170–179). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Reis, M.
(2000) On the parenthetical features of German was…w constructions and how to account for them. In U. Lutz, G. Müller, & A. von Stechow (Eds.), Wh-scope marking (359–407). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Richards, N.
(2010) Uttering trees. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2016) Contiguity theory. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rothman, J.
(2007) Heritage speaker competence differences, language change, and input type: Inflected infinitives in Heritage Brazilian Portuguese. International Journal of Bilingualism, 11(4), 359–389. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2009) Understanding the nature and outcomes of early bilingualism: Romance languages as heritage languages. International Journal of Bilingualism, 13(2), 155–163. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sánchez-Walker, N.
(2012) Comprehension of subject and object relative clauses in Spanish heritage speakers and L2 learners of Spanish. PhD Qualifying paper, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Google Scholar
Sabel, J.
(2000) Partial wh-movement and the typology of wh-questions. In U. Lutz, G. Müller, & A. von Stechow (Eds.), Wh-scope marking (409–446). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sawatzky, H. L.
(1986) Sie suchten eine Heimat: deutsch-mennonitische Kolonisierung in Mexiko, 1922–1984 (Vol. 351). NG Elwert.Google Scholar
Schmid, M. S.
(2011) Language Attrition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schmid, M. S. & Köpke, B.
to appear). First language attrition and bilingual development. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism.
Schulz, B.
(2006) Wh-scope marking in English interlanguage grammars: Transfer and processing effects on the second language acquisition of complex wh-questions. PhD dissertation, University of Hawai’i.Google Scholar
(2011) Syntactic creativity in second language English: wh-scope marking in Japanese-English interlanguage. Second Language Research, 27(3), 313–341. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Slavkov, N.
(2009) The acquisition of complex wh-questions in the L2 English of Canadian French and Bulgarian speakers: Medial wh-constructions, inversion phenomena, and avoidance strategies (Doctoral dissertation). University of Ottawa.Google Scholar
(2015) Long-distance wh-movement and long-distance wh-movement avoidance in L2 English: Evidence from French and Bulgarian speakers. Second Language Research, 31(2) 179–210. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sorace, A.
(2004) Native language attrition and developmental instability at the syntax-discourse interface: Date, interpretations and methods. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 71, 143–145. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2011) Pinning down the notion of “interface” in bilingualism. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 11, 1–33. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Strik, N.
(2013) The acquisition of long distance wh-questions in L2 French. Proceedings of the 2013 annual conference of the Canadian Linguistic Association, 1–15.Google Scholar
Thornton, R.
(1990) Adventures in long-distance moving: The acquisition of complex wh-questions (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Connecticut, CT, USA.Google Scholar
Tsang, W. I.
(2016) Acquisition of English number agreement: L1-Cantonese – L2-English – L3-French speakers versus L1-Cantonese – L2-English speakers. International Journal of Bilingualism, 20(5), 611–635. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yager, L.
(2016) Morphosyntactic variation and change in Wisconsin Heritage German. PhD dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison.Google Scholar
Yager, L., Hellmold, N., Joo, H., Putnam, M., Rossi, E., Stafford, C., & Salmons, J.
(2015) New structural patterns in moribund grammar: Case marking in Heritage German. Frontiers in Psychology 61: 1716. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zobl, H.
(1995) Converging evidence for the “acquisition–learning” distinction. Applied Linguistics, 161, 35–56. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Nguyen, An D. & Geraldine Legendre
2022. The acquisition of wh-questions: Beyond structural economy and input frequency. Language Acquisition 29:1 ► pp. 79 ff. DOI logo
Putnam, Michael T.
2020. Separating vs. shrinking. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 23:1 ► pp. 41 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 23 april 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.