TY - JOUR
T1 - Syntactic restructuring in heritage grammars
T2 - Word order variation in Moundridge Schweitzer German
AU - Hopp, Holger
AU - Putnam, Michael T.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© John Benjamins Publishing Company.
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - In order to elucidate the structure of heritage grammars, this paper presents an analysis of word order variation in Moundridge Schweitzer German (MSG), a moribund heritage variety of German spoken in South Central Kansas. Based on elicited production data and an acceptability judgment task, we show that the current state of the MSG grammar maintains the asymmetric German verb-second (V2) and verb-final (V-final) word-ordering closely tied to specific pragmatic information associated with clause-types and complementizers. Extensive contact with English does not lead to adoption of English word order; rather, it occasions restructuring of German word order within the constraints of German syntax. We model these findings in a syntactic analysis following recent proposals by Putnam & Sánchez (2013) and Polinsky (2011) that challenge the notion of 'incomplete acquisition' as a way to conceptualize heritage language acquisition.
AB - In order to elucidate the structure of heritage grammars, this paper presents an analysis of word order variation in Moundridge Schweitzer German (MSG), a moribund heritage variety of German spoken in South Central Kansas. Based on elicited production data and an acceptability judgment task, we show that the current state of the MSG grammar maintains the asymmetric German verb-second (V2) and verb-final (V-final) word-ordering closely tied to specific pragmatic information associated with clause-types and complementizers. Extensive contact with English does not lead to adoption of English word order; rather, it occasions restructuring of German word order within the constraints of German syntax. We model these findings in a syntactic analysis following recent proposals by Putnam & Sánchez (2013) and Polinsky (2011) that challenge the notion of 'incomplete acquisition' as a way to conceptualize heritage language acquisition.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84936993467
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84936993467#tab=citedBy
U2 - 10.1075/lab.5.2.02hop
DO - 10.1075/lab.5.2.02hop
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84936993467
SN - 1879-9264
VL - 5
SP - 180
EP - 214
JO - Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism
JF - Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism
IS - 2
ER -