Part of
Language Attrition: Theoretical perspectivesEdited by Barbara Köpke, Monika S. Schmid, Merel Keijzer and Susan Dostert
[Studies in Bilingualism 33] 2007
► pp. 9–37
Edited by Barbara Köpke, Monika S. Schmid, Merel Keijzer and Susan Dostert
[Studies in Bilingualism 33] 2007
► pp. 9–37
Language attrition at the crossroads of brain, mind, and society
This chapter is an attempt to survey the predictions of some of the most important factors involved in attrition and to discuss them with respect to empirical data from L1 attrition. The factors discussed include biological aspects (plasticity, activation thresholds, inhibition and emotional implication), cognitive aspects (memory, aptitude, literacy and task dependency) and external factors (the role of language use, the cultural context and attitudes). The discussion shows that (a) many of these factors are closely linked, (b) some of them may be considered cluster factors which are more influent and more strongly interrelated than others, and (c) none of the factors may alone be considered responsible for attrition. This may be accounted for by a multicomponential view of language attrition.
Cited by
Cited by 48 other publications
Ahumada-Ebratt, Lyanne, Barbara Köpke & Kleopatra Mytara
2018. Les différentes langues du multilingue en interaction : entre influence translinguistique et attrition. Revue française de linguistique appliquée Vol. XXIII:2 ► pp. 15 ff. 
Albirini, Abdulkafi
2014. Toward understanding the variability in the language proficiencies of Arabic heritage speakers. International Journal of Bilingualism 18:6 ► pp. 730 ff.
Albirini, Abdulkafi & Brahim Chakrani
2017. Switching codes and registers: An analysis of heritage Arabic speakers’ sociolinguistic competence. International Journal of Bilingualism 21:3 ► pp. 317 ff.
Alexandrova, Nina Sh., Vladimir A. Antonets, Oleg A. Kuzenkov, Irina V. Nuidel, Olga V. Shemagina & Vladimir G. Yakhno
2021. Bilingualism as an Unstable State. In Advances in Cognitive Research, Artificial Intelligence and Neuroinformatics [Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, 1358], ► pp. 359 ff.
Bylund, Emanuel
2009. Maturational Constraints and First Language Attrition. Language Learning 59:3 ► pp. 687 ff.
Bylund, Emanuel & Pedro Ramírez-Galan
2016. Language Aptitude in First Language Attrition: A Study on Late Spanish-Swedish Bilinguals. Applied Linguistics 37:5 ► pp. 621 ff.
Castro, Tammer, Jason Rothman & Marit Westergaard
2017. On the Directionality of Cross-Linguistic Effects in Bidialectal Bilingualism. Frontiers in Psychology 8
Colonna Dahlman, Roberta & Tanja Kupisch
2016. Attrition at the interfaces in bilectal acquisition (Italian/Gallipolino). In Theoretical Approaches to Linguistic Variation [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 234], ► pp. 295 ff.
Annick De Houwer & Lourdes Ortega
2018. The Cambridge Handbook of Bilingualism,
Doleží, Linda
2020. L2 English as a Backup for L3 Czech. CASALC Review 10:2 ► pp. 15 ff.
Domínguez, Laura & Glyn Hicks
2016. Synchronic change in a multidialectal Spanish community. In Inquiries in Hispanic Linguistics [Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 12], ► pp. 53 ff.
Dorado Escribano, Guadalupe
2020. Atrición lingüística, ¿término correcto para este “nuevo” fenómeno lingüístico?. Pragmática Sociocultural / Sociocultural Pragmatics 8:2 ► pp. 159 ff.
Dubiel, Bozena & Eithne Guilfoyle
2021. Early shifts in the heritage language strength: A comparison of lexical access and accuracy in bilingual and monolingual children. International Journal of Bilingualism 25:1 ► pp. 21 ff.
Erard, Michael & Anne-Hélène Kerbiriou
2021. Concevoir une linguistique de la mort (note de recherche). Anthropologie et Sociétés 45:1-2 ► pp. 95 ff.
Genevska-Hanke, Dobrinka
2020. Pronominal Use/Knowledge in Late L1-Attrition and Near-Native L2-Acquisition: The Case of Pro-drop L1 Bulgarian and Non-pro-drop L2 German. In New Trends in Language Acquisition Within the Generative Perspective [Studies in Theoretical Psycholinguistics, 49], ► pp. 71 ff.
Genevska-Hanke, Dobrinka
2020. Some notes on the nature of L1-attrition and its modeling. Second Language Research 36:2 ► pp. 207 ff.
Gharibi, Khadijeh & Frank Boers
2017. Influential factors in incomplete acquisition and attrition of young heritage speakers’ vocabulary knowledge. Language Acquisition 24:1 ► pp. 52 ff.
Gračanin-Yuksek, Martina, Sol Lago, Duygu Fatma Şafak, Orhan Demir & Bilal Kırkıcı
2020. The interpretation of syntactically unconstrained anaphors in Turkish heritage speakers. Second Language Research 36:4 ► pp. 475 ff.
Gürel, Ayşe
2015. First language attrition of constraints on wh-scrambling: Does the second language have an effect?. International Journal of Bilingualism 19:1 ► pp. 75 ff.
Gürel, Ayşe
Hamann, Cornelia, Solveig Chilla, Lina Abed Ibrahim & István Fekete
2020. Language assessment tools for Arabic-speaking heritage and refugee children in Germany. Applied Psycholinguistics 41:6 ► pp. 1375 ff.
Hicks, Glyn & Laura Domínguez
2020. A model for L1 grammatical attrition. Second Language Research 36:2 ► pp. 143 ff.
Hopp, Holger, Michael T. Putnam & Nora Vosburg
2019. Derivational complexity vs. transfer effects. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 9:3 ► pp. 341 ff.
Jessner, Ulrike, Kathrin Oberhofer & Manon Megens
2021. The attrition of school-learned foreign languages: A multilingual perspective. Applied Psycholinguistics 42:1 ► pp. 19 ff.
Karayayla, Tuğba & Monika S. Schmid
2019. First Language Attrition as a Function of Age at Onset of Bilingualism: First Language Attainment of Turkish-English Bilinguals in the United Kingdom. Language Learning 69:1 ► pp. 106 ff.
Köpke, Barbara
2017. Chapter 9. A neuropsycholinguistic approach to complexity. In Complexity Theory and Language Development [Language Learning & Language Teaching, 48], ► pp. 191 ff.
Köpke, Barbara
2021. Language attrition: A matter of brain plasticity?. Language, Interaction and Acquisition 12:1 ► pp. 110 ff.
Lehmann, J., N. Christen, Y. M. Barilan & I. Gannot
2021. Age-related hearing loss, speech understanding and cognitive technologies. International Journal of Speech Technology 24:2 ► pp. 509 ff.
Lohndal, Terje
2021. Syntax of Heritage Languages. In The Cambridge Handbook of Heritage Languages and Linguistics, ► pp. 644 ff.
Lubińska, Dorota
2018. A Small-Scale Study on the Relationship between First Language Attrition and Language Attitudes in Polish Speakers in Sweden. Scando-Slavica 64:2 ► pp. 283 ff.
Montrul, Silvina A.
2014. Chapter 4. Interlanguage, transfer and fossilization: Beyond second language acquisition. In Interlanguage [Language Learning & Language Teaching, 39], ► pp. 75 ff.
Olfert, Helena
Ramonaitė, Jogilė Teresa & Meilutė Ramonienė
2021. How, when and why can the mother-tongue language be forgotten? The case of international adoption. Taikomoji kalbotyra 16 ► pp. 1 ff.
RUNNQVIST, ELIN & ALBERT COSTA
2012. Is retrieval-induced forgetting behind the bilingual disadvantage in word production?. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 15:2 ► pp. 365 ff.
Sassane, Ali
2022. AUDITORY RECOGNITION IN BILINGUAL ARABIC/FRENCH VIA THE DICHOTIC LISTENING TECHNIQUE. Journal of Language and Communication 9:1 ► pp. 143 ff.
Schmid, Monika S., Barbara Köpke & Kees de Bot
2013. Language attrition as a complex, non-linear development. International Journal of Bilingualism 17:6 ► pp. 675 ff.
SCHMITT, ELENA
2010. When boundaries are crossed: Evaluating language attrition data from two perspectives. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 13:1 ► pp. 63 ff.
Seton, Bregtje & Monika S. Schmid
2016. Multi-competence and first language attrition. In The Cambridge Handbook of Linguistic Multi-Competence, ► pp. 338 ff.
STOLBERG, DORIS & ALEXANDRA MÜNCH
2010. “Die Muttersprache vergisst man nicht” – or do you? A case study in L1 attrition and its (partial) reversal,. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 13:1 ► pp. 19 ff.
Vulchanova, Mila, Jacqueline Collier, Pedro Guijarro-Fuentes & Valentin Vulchanov
2023. Variation in first-generation L1 deictic systems: Language attrition and bilingualism effects. International Journal of Bilingualism 27:1 ► pp. 104 ff.
Vulchanova, Mila, Pedro Guijarro-Fuentes, Jacqueline Collier & Valentin Vulchanov
2020. Shrinking Your Deictic System: How Far Can You Go?. Frontiers in Psychology 11
WOLFF, PHILLIP & TATYANA VENTURA
2009. When Russians learn English: How the semantics of causation may change. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 12:2 ► pp. 153 ff.
Zaretsky, Elena
2014. The role of L1 and L2 reading on L1 preservation and positive cross-linguistic transfer among sequential bilinguals. Written Language & Literacy 17:1 ► pp. 139 ff.
Zaretsky, Elena
2016. The role of L1 and L2 reading on L1 preservation and positive cross-linguistic transfer among sequential bilinguals. In Cross-linguistic Transfer in Reading in Multilingual Contexts [Benjamins Current Topics, 89], ► pp. 145 ff.
Zaretsky, Elena & Eva G. Bar-Shalom
2010. Does reading in shallow L1 orthography slow attrition of language-specific morphological structures?. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics 24:4-5 ► pp. 401 ff.
Емельянова, Яна Борисовна
2022. PSYCHOLINGUISTIC AND PSYCHOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF MOBILITY OF TRANSLATOR’S LINGUISTIC KNOWLEDGE. Tomsk state pedagogical university bulletin :2(220) ► pp. 125 ff.
[no author supplied]
[no author supplied]
2021. Grammatical Aspects of Heritage Languages. In The Cambridge Handbook of Heritage Languages and Linguistics, ► pp. 579 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 3 june 2023. 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.