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Restrictions on definiteness in the grammars of German-Turkish heritage speakers

Kupisch, Tanja LU ; Belikova, Alyona ; Özcelik, Öner ; Stangen, Ilse and White, Lydia (2017) In Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 7(1). p.1-32
Abstract
This paper reports on a study investigating restrictions on definiteness (the Definiteness Effect) in existential constructions in the two languages of Turkish heritage speakers in Germany. Turkish and German differ in how the Definiteness Effect plays out. Definite expressions in German may not occur in affirmative or negative existentials, whereas in Turkish the restriction applies only to affirmative existentials. Participants were adults and fell into two groups: simultaneous bilinguals (2L1) who acquired German before age 3 and early sequential bilinguals (2L1) who acquired German after age 4; there were also monolingual controls. The tasks involved acceptability judgments. Subjects were presented with contexts, each followed by a... (More)
This paper reports on a study investigating restrictions on definiteness (the Definiteness Effect) in existential constructions in the two languages of Turkish heritage speakers in Germany. Turkish and German differ in how the Definiteness Effect plays out. Definite expressions in German may not occur in affirmative or negative existentials, whereas in Turkish the restriction applies only to affirmative existentials. Participants were adults and fell into two groups: simultaneous bilinguals (2L1) who acquired German before age 3 and early sequential bilinguals (2L1) who acquired German after age 4; there were also monolingual controls. The tasks involved acceptability judgments. Subjects were presented with contexts, each followed by a sentence to be judged, including grammatical and ungrammatical existentials. Results show that the bilinguals, regardless of age of acquisition, make judgments appropriate for each language. They reject definite expressions in negative existentials in German and accept them in Turkish, suggesting distinct grammars. (Less)
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author
; ; ; and
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
keywords
Definiteness, Existential sentences, Turkish, Heritage Speakers, German, Bilingualism
in
Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism
volume
7
issue
1
pages
1 - 32
publisher
John Benjamins Publishing Company
external identifiers
  • scopus:85014694819
ISSN
1879-9264
DOI
10.1075/lab.13031.kup
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
6d0c6c22-0615-475a-abe7-70ed1288df69
date added to LUP
2024-11-24 22:01:10
date last changed
2024-12-03 14:57:00
@article{6d0c6c22-0615-475a-abe7-70ed1288df69,
  abstract     = {{This paper reports on a study investigating restrictions on definiteness (the Definiteness Effect) in existential constructions in the two languages of Turkish heritage speakers in Germany. Turkish and German differ in how the Definiteness Effect plays out. Definite expressions in German may not occur in affirmative or negative existentials, whereas in Turkish the restriction applies only to affirmative existentials. Participants were adults and fell into two groups: simultaneous bilinguals (2L1) who acquired German before age 3 and early sequential bilinguals (2L1) who acquired German after age 4; there were also monolingual controls. The tasks involved acceptability judgments. Subjects were presented with contexts, each followed by a sentence to be judged, including grammatical and ungrammatical existentials. Results show that the bilinguals, regardless of age of acquisition, make judgments appropriate for each language. They reject definite expressions in negative existentials in German and accept them in Turkish, suggesting distinct grammars.}},
  author       = {{Kupisch, Tanja and Belikova, Alyona and Özcelik, Öner and Stangen, Ilse and White, Lydia}},
  issn         = {{1879-9264}},
  keywords     = {{Definiteness; Existential sentences; Turkish; Heritage Speakers; German; Bilingualism}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{1--32}},
  publisher    = {{John Benjamins Publishing Company}},
  series       = {{Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism}},
  title        = {{Restrictions on definiteness in the grammars of German-Turkish heritage speakers}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/lab.13031.kup}},
  doi          = {{10.1075/lab.13031.kup}},
  volume       = {{7}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}