Abstract
In this contribution, we investigate the impact of language-internal and language-external factors on the parametrized grammatical domain of (null) subjects in adult Italian heritage speakers (HS, n=16). Based on empirical evidence from correlation analyses comparing these speakers´ spontaneous speech to monolingual Italians (n=10), we determine the kind and extent of variation in monolingual and bilingual adult end-state grammars. We will show that there is indeed a significant variation in the null subject production of the HS related to the factors age and education which is, however, constrained to contexts of 1st grammatical person. This observation cannot be taken to represent incomplete acquisition but rather a discourse and possibly situation-related competent behaviour. We propose that end-state HS grammars are characterized by a full grammatical and pragmatic competence, combined with a larger variation of language-externally determined preferences than monolinguals show. This does not call the native end-state competence of HS into question but opens the door for potential changes in future bilingual generations. We further discuss the implications for language acquisition theory and language change in terms of stability.
Acknowledgements
The data of the present paper have been taken from the research project „Subjects and objects in Italian and Spanish as heritage languages in Germany“, conducted at the University of Wuppertal under the direction of Prof. Dr. Katrin Schmitz. We thank the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) for funding this project (project no. SCHM 2752/5-2). Furthermore, we would like to thank all our students (Anna Bonalume, Nordin El Bouzidi Lorca, Anna Fragola, Silvia Fuentes Canadas, Daniela Giannola, Laura Guadagnano, Angelica Kaegi, Francesco Leto, Victoria Lolato, Jesica Vázquez-Pérez) for their help with data collection and transcription which make our analyses and papers possible.
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