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The Acquisition of Differential Object Marking
Edited by Alexandru Mardale and Silvina Montrul
[Trends in Language Acquisition Research 26] 2020
► pp. 283–312

Chapter 11
Differential Object Marking in Romanian as a heritage language

 | University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
 | California State University San Marcos
This cross-generational study investigated the potential vulnerability of DOM in the oral production of Romanian heritage speakers as a function of age of onset of bilingualism (simultaneous vs. sequential bilinguals). In Romanian DOM marking generally co-exists with accusative clitic doubling (CD). Fifty-two Romanian speakers in Romania, 32 Romanian immigrants who arrived to the US after age 18, and 29 heritage speakers of Romanian completed a written proficiency test and an oral narrative task. The results showed that DOM is vulnerable to erosion in heritage speakers of Romanian, and those speakers who omit DOM also omit CD. Age of onset of bilingualism modulated DOM and CD omission in heritage speakers: simultaneous bilinguals made more errors with DOM and CD than sequential bilinguals. The Romanian immigrants did not show attrition of DOM.
Keywords: Romanian, heritage speakers, Differential Object Marking, accusative, clitic doubling, oral production
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.DOM in Romanian
  • 3.The acquisition of DOM in Romanian
  • 4.The study
    • Participants
    • Task
    • Results
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 18 June 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.26.11mon
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