Chapter 4. Gender assignment in German as a heritage language in an English-speaking context
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Tanja Kupisch
Abstract
We present a case study of a heritage speaker of German, Luisa, who is growing up in an English-speaking part of Canada, focussing on the acquisition of grammatical gender in German. While German has cues to gender assignment, the acquisition of gender in this setting is compromised by the magnitude of gender cues and form syncretism, and the absence of gender in English. We present longitudinal, naturalistic data from three periods: age 1–2, age 4–5, and age 7. We ask whether Luisa develops grammatical gender akin to monolingual children or whether there are indications of delay, stagnation, or attrition, as observed for heritage speakers of other languages. The results show monolingual-like development despite a shift in dominance from German to English.
Abstract
We present a case study of a heritage speaker of German, Luisa, who is growing up in an English-speaking part of Canada, focussing on the acquisition of grammatical gender in German. While German has cues to gender assignment, the acquisition of gender in this setting is compromised by the magnitude of gender cues and form syncretism, and the absence of gender in English. We present longitudinal, naturalistic data from three periods: age 1–2, age 4–5, and age 7. We ask whether Luisa develops grammatical gender akin to monolingual children or whether there are indications of delay, stagnation, or attrition, as observed for heritage speakers of other languages. The results show monolingual-like development despite a shift in dominance from German to English.
Chapters in this book
- 日本言語政策学会 / Japan Association for Language Policy. 言語政策 / Language Policy 10. 2014 i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Chapter 1. Introduction 1
-
Theory in language acquisition research
- Chapter 2. Linguistic approaches to language acquisition 16
-
Gender in bilingual and heritage language acquisition
- Chapter 3. Acquisition of morpho-syntactic features in a bilingual Italian child 54
- Chapter 4. Gender assignment in German as a heritage language in an English-speaking context 88
-
Input and exposure in the classroom
- Chapter 5. Acquisition of 3 pl verb markings by (very) advanced FSL learners and bilingual Francophone students 118
- Chapter 6. L2 intonation perception in learners of Spanish 144
-
Evidence in controlled first exposure language learning
- Chapter 7. Isolated and combined effects of models and corrective feedback in the acquisition of the Turkish locative morpheme 162
- Chapter 8. First exposure to Russian word forms by adult English speakers 191
-
Input and evidence in the acquisition of syntactic structure
- Chapter 9. Speech modifications and the Processability Theory hierarchy 226
- Chapter 10. Varieties of DP recursion 245
- Proper name index 267
- Subject index 271
Chapters in this book
- 日本言語政策学会 / Japan Association for Language Policy. 言語政策 / Language Policy 10. 2014 i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Chapter 1. Introduction 1
-
Theory in language acquisition research
- Chapter 2. Linguistic approaches to language acquisition 16
-
Gender in bilingual and heritage language acquisition
- Chapter 3. Acquisition of morpho-syntactic features in a bilingual Italian child 54
- Chapter 4. Gender assignment in German as a heritage language in an English-speaking context 88
-
Input and exposure in the classroom
- Chapter 5. Acquisition of 3 pl verb markings by (very) advanced FSL learners and bilingual Francophone students 118
- Chapter 6. L2 intonation perception in learners of Spanish 144
-
Evidence in controlled first exposure language learning
- Chapter 7. Isolated and combined effects of models and corrective feedback in the acquisition of the Turkish locative morpheme 162
- Chapter 8. First exposure to Russian word forms by adult English speakers 191
-
Input and evidence in the acquisition of syntactic structure
- Chapter 9. Speech modifications and the Processability Theory hierarchy 226
- Chapter 10. Varieties of DP recursion 245
- Proper name index 267
- Subject index 271
