Project Details
Projekt
EVOLVE: Connecting diachronic change and heritage language processing
Subject Area
General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages
Term
since 2021
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 468764275
This project relates variability in heritage languages to processes of diachronic change. More concretely, we investigate the hypothesis that patterns of diachronic change can predict processing profiles displayed by heritage speakers. To test this, we will conduct online processing experiments on two phenomena in the domain of object realisation: clitic doubling in Spanish and null objects in Portuguese. We will compare heritage speakers of European varieties of Spanish and Portuguese living in Germany with speakers of varieties more diachronically advanced with respect to these grammatical phenomena: Rioplatense Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. We ask: Do the processing profiles of heritage speakers mirror those of speakers from diachronically more advanced varieties, supporting a link between diachronic change and processing variability?Our project seeks to connect two traditionally separate fields of study: diachronic linguistics and bilingualism research. We use insights from diachronic linguistics to better understand the factors behind variability in heritage grammars, i.e., the fact that some grammatical phenomena (but not others) show divergent attainment. Hypothesising that diachronic and synchronic patterns of variability are driven by processing pressures, we investigate whether independently attested pathways of diachronic change can predict processing variability in heritage speakers. Our project compares heritage speakers born in Germany with speakers of dialectal varieties distributed across 4 different countries (Portugal, Spain, Argentina and Brazil). As a result, our findings will yield not only a better understanding of the linguistic competence of Spanish and Portuguese heritage speakers in Germany, but they will also contribute to research on diachronic and dialectal variation in Spanish and Portuguese. With these aims, we plan to:(a) Investigate the processing of clitic objects and clitic doubling in different varieties of Spanish and in Spanish as a heritage language. We examine whether heritage speakers of Castilian Spanish in Germany show diachronically progressive behaviours in their processing of clitic objects. This question is addressed through systematic comparisons between speakers of Castilian Spanish (in Spain) and Rioplatense Spanish (in Argentina).(b) Investigate the processing of clitics and null objects in different varieties of Portuguese and in Portuguese as a heritage language. We examine whether heritage speakers of European Portuguese in Germany show diachronically progressive behaviours in their processing of null objects. This question is addressed through comparisons between speakers of European Portuguese (in Portugal) and Brazilian Portuguese (in Brazil).
DFG Programme
Research Grants
International Connection
Argentina, Brazil, Portugal, Spain
