Lost in Transmission
The role of attrition and input in heritage language development
Heritage speakers are a fascinating group of bilinguals with a unique profile. Living abroad as immigrants of the second generation, they speak the language of their own speech community (the heritage language) at home, and the societally dominant language in most other domains. What exactly they know about their heritage language continues to fascinate the research community as well as teachers and other practitioners working with this group. The different contributions cover a large variety of studies into heritage languages spoken in Europe and North America (including Chinese, Norwegian, Russian, Spanish and Turkish). The volume makes a key contribution to the description and explanation of variability in the outcomes of heritage language acquisition, taking into account a wide range of factors which impact on language acquisition. As comparisons are frequently made with monolinguals and foreign language learners, the volume is also highly relevant for researchers working in monolingual language acquisition and foreign language learning and teaching.
[Studies in Bilingualism, 59] 2020. vii, 276 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Published online on 8 May 2020
Published online on 8 May 2020
© John Benjamins
Table of Contents
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Acknowledgements | pp. vii–viii
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Two sides of one coin? The relevance of first language attrition for the acquisition of heritage languagesBernhard Brehmer and Jeanine Treffers-Daller | pp. 1–14
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Definiteness in Wenzhounese Chinese in the Netherlands and in China: Evidence for generational change in two locationsSuzanne Aalberse, Sible Andringa, Martina Faber and Phine Lippe | pp. 15–32
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Effects of first language attrition on heritage language input and ultimate attainment: Two generations of Turkish immigrants in the UKTuğba Karayayla | pp. 33–70
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Not in the mood: Frequency effects in heritage speakers’ subjunctive knowledgeDavid Giancaspro | pp. 71–98
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Word order variation in heritage languages: Subject shift and object shift in NorwegianMerete Anderssen and Marit Westergaard | pp. 99–124
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Language contact: Gender agreement in Spanish L2 learners and heritage speakersJessica Diebowski | pp. 125–150
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How do parental input and socio-economic status account for differences within and between the cohorts?Elke G. Montanari, Roman Abel, Lilia Tschudinovski and Barbara Graßer | pp. 151–170
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Heritage and non-heritage bilinguals: The role of biliteracy and bilingual educationMaria Andreou, Ifigenia Dosi, Despina Papadopoulou and Ianthi Maria Tsimpli | pp. 171–196
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High sensitivity to conceptual cues in Turkish heritage speakers with dominant German L2: Comparing semantics–morphosyntax and pragmatics–morphosyntax interfacesElif Krause | pp. 197–228
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The Frequency Code and gendered attrition and acquisition in the German-English heritage language community in Vancouver, CanadaEsther de Leeuw | pp. 229–254
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Does extensive L2 exposure trigger L1 attrition of perfective and durative aspect marking in Mandarin Chinese?Shi Zhang | pp. 255–270
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Author Index | p. 271
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Language Index | p. 273
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Subject Index | pp. 275–276
“This volume is a superb contribution to the burgeoning study of heritage bilingual acquisition.
The editors and the contributing authors have put together a thought-provoking book that engages in theoretical and empirical research. The collection raises questions that only future research and the study of more diverse language pairs will be able to untangle. In sum, this work is another significant contribution that helps to understand the variable linguistic outcomes of heritage bilinguals and serves as a pertinent resource for language teachers and researchers.”
The editors and the contributing authors have put together a thought-provoking book that engages in theoretical and empirical research. The collection raises questions that only future research and the study of more diverse language pairs will be able to untangle. In sum, this work is another significant contribution that helps to understand the variable linguistic outcomes of heritage bilinguals and serves as a pertinent resource for language teachers and researchers.”
Eric Alvarez, Sorbonne Nouvelle University, on Linguist List 32.1927 (2021)
Cited by (7)
Cited by seven other publications
Cocchi, Gloria & Cristina Pierantozzi
2024. Albanian as a Heritage Language in Italy: A Case Study on Code-Switching within DP. Languages 9:9 ► pp. 285 ff. 
Karpava, Sviatlana
2024. Family Language Policy in the minority and migration contexts of Cyprus. Sociolinguistic Studies 18:1-2 ► pp. 27 ff.
Said, Fatma F. S.
2024. Grandparents as custodians of Arabic as a heritage language in the United Kingdom. Sociolinguistic Studies 18:1-2 ► pp. 107 ff.
Schmitt, Elena & Anastasia Sorokina
2024. Guest editorial: Language attrition – a comprehensive introduction. The Language Learning Journal 52:2 ► pp. 133 ff.
Camacho, José
2022. Paradigmatic Uniformity: Evidence from Heritage Speakers of Spanish. Languages 7:1 ► pp. 14 ff.
Makrodimitris, Christos & Petra Schulz
2021. Does Timing in Acquisition Modulate Heritage Children’s Language Abilities? Evidence from the Greek LITMUS Sentence Repetition Task. Languages 6:1 ► pp. 49 ff.
Paradis, Johanne, Adriana Soto-Corominas, Evangelia Daskalaki, Xi Chen & Alexandra Gottardo
2021. Morphosyntactic Development in First Generation Arabic—English Children: The Effect of Cognitive, Age, and Input Factors over Time and across Languages. Languages 6:1 ► pp. 51 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 december 2024. 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.
Subjects
Main BIC Subject
CFDC: Language acquisition
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General