Let’s fix it? Cross-linguistic influence in word order patterns of Russian heritage speakers in Germany
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Bernhard Brehmer
and Irina Usanova
Abstract
The paper analyzes verb placement of heritage speakers of Russian in contexts where German has a fixed position of the finite verb: V2 in declarative main clauses and V-final in subordinate clauses. Russian exhibits a neutral SVO order in both cases, but verb placement is in general dependent on requirements of information structure. Verb placement in texts of 20 Russian-German bilinguals was compared to data from a monolingual control group. The analysis shows that the bilinguals maintain the pragmatic flexibility of verb placement in Russian. They did not exhibit an overuse of V2 structures in declarative main clauses. There is, however, a significant increase in V-final for subordinate and declarative main clauses, which may be due to transfer from German.
Abstract
The paper analyzes verb placement of heritage speakers of Russian in contexts where German has a fixed position of the finite verb: V2 in declarative main clauses and V-final in subordinate clauses. Russian exhibits a neutral SVO order in both cases, but verb placement is in general dependent on requirements of information structure. Verb placement in texts of 20 Russian-German bilinguals was compared to data from a monolingual control group. The analysis shows that the bilinguals maintain the pragmatic flexibility of verb placement in Russian. They did not exhibit an overuse of V2 structures in declarative main clauses. There is, however, a significant increase in V-final for subordinate and declarative main clauses, which may be due to transfer from German.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Acknowledgements ix
- Transfer effects in multilingual language development 1
-
Psycholinguistic Approaches to Language Transfer
- The relationship between L3 transfer and structural similarity across development 21
- Segmental targets versus lexical interference 53
- Foreign accent in heritage speakers of Turkish in Germany 87
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Transfer in Language Learning and Language Contact
- Lexical cross-linguistic influence in third language development 111
- Effects of cross-linguistic influence in word formation 129
- Transfer effects in the acquisition of English as an additional language by bilingual children in Germany 147
- Let’s fix it? Cross-linguistic influence in word order patterns of Russian heritage speakers in Germany 161
-
Transfer in Applied Linguistics
- Assessing foreign language speech rhythm in multilingual learners 191
- Cross-linguistic transfer of academic language in multilingual adolescents 221
- Bilingual resources and school context 249
-
Methodology on Transfer
- Do immigrant children profit from heritage language proficiencies? 277
- Automated L1 identification in English learner essays and its implications for language transfer 297
- The nature of the initial state of child L2 grammar 323
- List of Indices 345
- Name Index 349
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Acknowledgements ix
- Transfer effects in multilingual language development 1
-
Psycholinguistic Approaches to Language Transfer
- The relationship between L3 transfer and structural similarity across development 21
- Segmental targets versus lexical interference 53
- Foreign accent in heritage speakers of Turkish in Germany 87
-
Transfer in Language Learning and Language Contact
- Lexical cross-linguistic influence in third language development 111
- Effects of cross-linguistic influence in word formation 129
- Transfer effects in the acquisition of English as an additional language by bilingual children in Germany 147
- Let’s fix it? Cross-linguistic influence in word order patterns of Russian heritage speakers in Germany 161
-
Transfer in Applied Linguistics
- Assessing foreign language speech rhythm in multilingual learners 191
- Cross-linguistic transfer of academic language in multilingual adolescents 221
- Bilingual resources and school context 249
-
Methodology on Transfer
- Do immigrant children profit from heritage language proficiencies? 277
- Automated L1 identification in English learner essays and its implications for language transfer 297
- The nature of the initial state of child L2 grammar 323
- List of Indices 345
- Name Index 349