Table Of ContentNative Speakers, Interrupted
A heritage language is the term given to a language spoken at home by
bilingual children of immigrant parents. Written by a leading figure in the
field, this pioneering, in-depth study brings together three heritage lan-
guages – Hindi, Spanish, and Romanian – spoken in the United States. It
demonstrates how heritage speakers drive morphosyntactic change when
certain environmental characteristics are met and considers the relationship
between social and cognitive factors and timing in language acquisition,
bilingualism, and language change. It also discusses the implications of the
findings for the language education of heritage speakers in the USA and
considers how the heritage language can be maintained in the English-
speakingschool system. Advancingour understanding ofheritage language
development and change, this book is essential reading for students and
researchers of linguistics and multilingualism, immigration, education stud-
ies,andlanguagepolicy,aswellasforeducatorsandpolicymakers.
silvinamontrulisProfessorintheDepartmentsofSpanishandPortuguese
and of Linguistics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and
directs the Second Language Acquisition and Bilingualism Lab. She is co-
editor of the journal Second Language Research and has authored several
books, including Incomplete Acquisition in Bilingualism (2008) and The
AcquisitionofHeritageLanguages(2016).
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Native Speakers, Interrupted
Differential Object Marking and Language
Change in Heritage Languages
Silvina Montrul
UniversityofIllinois,Urbana-Champaign
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www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107133372
DOI:10.1017/9781316459690
©SilvinaMontrul2023
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexceptionandtotheprovisions
ofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplace
withoutthewrittenpermissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2023
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Montrul,Silvina,author.
Title:Nativespeakers,interrupted:differentialobjectmarkingandlanguagechangein
heritagelanguages/SilvinaMontrul.
Description:Cambridge,UnitedKingdom:NewYork,NY:CambridgeUniversity
Press,2023.|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2022040858(print)|LCCN2022040859(ebook)|ISBN
9781107133372(hardback)|ISBN9781107589896(paperback)|ISBN
9781316459690(epub)
Subjects:LCSH:Bilingualism–UnitedStates.|Heritagelanguagespeakers–United
States.|Linguisticchange–UnitedStates.|Spanishlanguage–Directobject.|Spanish
language–Morphosyntax.|Hindustanilanguage–Directobject.|Hindustani
language–Morphosyntax.|Romanianlanguage–Directobject.|Romanianlanguage–
Morphosyntax.
Classification:LCCP115.5.U5M662023(print)|LCCP115.5.U5(ebook)|DDC
306.44/60973–dc23/eng/20220917
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2022040858
LCebookrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2022040859
ISBN978-1-107-13337-2Hardback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistence
oraccuracyofURLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhis
publicationanddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain,
accurateorappropriate.
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Idedicatethisbooktothememoryofmybelovedparents:
papá, Mauricio Manuel Montrul (1939–2018) and mamá,
Ana María Gómez de Montrul (1940–2017), who I miss
dearly and remember every single day.
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Contents
List of Figures page ix
List of Tables xiv
Preface xvii
Abbreviations xx
Introduction 1
1 On HeritageSpeakers as Native Speakers 9
1.1 WhoIsaNativeSpeaker? 10
1.2 VariabilityinMonolinguallyRaisedNativeSpeakers 21
1.3 BilingualandMultilingualNativeSpeakers 28
1.4 MultilingualNativeSpeakersandLanguageChange 33
1.5 Summary 37
2 Structural Changesin HeritageLanguage Grammars 39
2.1 TheStructureofHeritageLanguageGrammars 40
2.2 SourcesofVariabilityinHeritageLanguageGrammars 53
2.3 IntergenerationalTransmission 78
2.4 Summary 81
3 DifferentialObject Marking 82
3.1 ThePhenomenon 82
3.2 SyntacticAnalyses 99
3.3 ANoteonDativeSubjects 104
3.4 Summary 106
4 Language Change and theAcquisitionof Differential
ObjectMarking 108
4.1 LanguageAcquisitionandLanguageChange 109
4.2 DifferentialObjectMarkinginMonolingualAcquisition 118
4.3 DifferentialObjectMarkinginSecondLanguageAcquisition 121
4.4 DifferentialObjectMarkinginEarlyBilingualismandHeritageLanguages 127
4.5 Summary 132
5 The Vulnerabilityof Differential Object Marking inThree
Heritage Languages 134
5.1 ResearchQuestionsandHypotheses 135
vii
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viii Contents
5.2 Methodology 141
5.3 Procedure 156
5.4 DataProcessingandAnalyses 158
5.5 Summary 158
6 DifferentialObjectMarkingin Spanishas a HeritageLanguage 159
6.1 TheSpanish-SpeakingPopulationintheUnitedStates 159
6.2 Participants 162
6.3 ResultsoftheLinguisticTasks 172
6.4 Summary 180
7 DifferentialObjectMarkingin Hindi asa HeritageLanguage 183
7.1 TheHindi/Urdu-SpeakingPopulationintheUnitedStates 183
7.2 Participants 185
7.3 ResultsoftheLinguisticTasks 194
7.4 Summary 202
8 DifferentialObjectMarkingand CliticDoubling inRomanian
asa Heritage Language 205
8.1 TheRomanian-SpeakingPopulationintheUnitedStates 205
8.2 Participants 206
8.3 ResultsoftheLinguisticTasks 215
8.4 Summary 224
9 Comparingthe Three HeritageLanguages 227
9.1 TheHeritageSpeakers 228
9.2 TheFirst-GenerationImmigrants 232
9.3 LanguageChangeinUSSpanish? 236
9.4 LinguisticFactors 244
9.5 SituationalFactors 255
9.6 LanguageStructure,SocialStructure,andLanguageChange 258
9.7 Summary 259
10 IntergenerationalTransmission 261
10.1 InputandStructuralChanges 263
10.2 TimingofAcquisitionandofAttrition 268
10.3 HowHeritageSpeakersMayChangeTheirLanguage 272
10.4 DirectionalityofLinguisticInfluence 276
10.5 Summary 280
Implications 281
LinguisticTheory 283
LanguageChange 284
EducationandLanguagePolicies 289
References 293
Index 322
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Figures
1.1 Typology of native speakers page 14
1.2 Individual heritage speakersalong thebilingual continuum 33
2.1 Russian, Ukrainianand Italian mean VOTvalues (in sec)
for stops /p,t,k/ bygeneration compared tothe Canadian English
and homeland standards (based on theliterature) 45
2.2 Development under optimal environmental conditions 54
2.3 Development under sub-optimal environmental conditions 55
2.4 Proportionof input inSpanish and inEnglish intwo
bilingual children 61
2.5 Development ofSpanish and English in two bilingual children 62
3.1 Object split (marked/unmarked) and factorsthat determine the
prominence of markedobjectsin different languages 83
3.2 Syntacticrepresentation forDOM inSpanish and
other languages 100
3.3 Vocabulary insertion ofDOM inSpanish and Hindi 101
3.4 CD and DOM in ModernRomanian 103
3.5 DOM without CD inOldRomanian 103
4.1 Languagechangeinindividuals,societies,andnationsovertime 109
4.2 The dynamics of language acquisition and change 111
4.3 Percentage accuracy onDOM with animate, specific direct
objectsin 3-year-old monolingualandbilingual
Spanish-speakingchildren 128
4.4 Mean acceptability ratings on ungrammatical sentences
without DOM 130
4.5 Percentage ofthe DOM omission in Spanish speakers in
the Netherlands 131
5.1 The dynamics of language acquisition and change 137
5.2 The dynamics of heritage language acquisition and heritage
language change 140
5.3 Example test items from theelicited oral productiontask 146
ix
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