Jažić Ilma, Gagarina Natalia, Perovic Alexandra
EMCL+, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands.
Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Berlin, Germany.
Front Psychol. 2023 Jan 9;13:832831. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.832831. eCollection 2022.
Heritage languages may differ from baseline languages spoken in the home country, particularly in the domains of vocabulary, morphosyntax and phonology. The success of acquiring and maintaining a heritage language may depend on a range of factors, from the age of acquisition of the second language; quantity and quality of input and frequency of first language use, to non-linguistic factors, such as Socio-Economic Status (SES). To investigate case marking accuracy in heritage Bosnian in relation to these very factors, we recruited 20 heritage Bosnian speakers in Austria and Germany, and 20 monolingual Bosnian speakers in Bosnia, aged between 18 and 30 years. Participants were assessed remotely in two sessions, on a battery of tests that included a background language questionnaire investigating participants' history of language acquisition, current usage and SES, and a newly adapted Bosnian version of the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN). A significant difference in case marking accuracy was found between the two groups, despite the 97% correct performance in the heritage speakers, and an almost 100% performance of the monolinguals. In the heritage speakers group only, errors indicated a trend toward case system simplification as well as uncertainty in distinguishing between case meanings. The use of Bosnian, assessed through quantity and quality of input, as well as frequency of current usage, was shown to be a significant predictor of case marking accuracy in heritage speakers. In contrast, SES and age of acquisition of German did not play a role in these participants' case accuracy. The observed patterns of quantitative and qualitative differences in the case marking accuracy between heritage Bosnian speakers and their monolingual counterparts, in the face of a high level of accuracy, contribute to our understanding of the heritage language attainment in more diverse language dyads where L1 is a lesser studied language.
传承语言可能与母语国家所使用的基础语言有所不同，尤其是在词汇、形态句法和音系等方面。掌握和维持一门传承语言的成功与否可能取决于一系列因素，从第二语言的习得年龄、输入的数量和质量以及第一语言的使用频率，到非语言因素，如社会经济地位（SES）。为了研究波斯尼亚传承语言中格标记准确性与这些因素的关系，我们招募了20名在奥地利和德国的波斯尼亚传承语言使用者，以及20名在波斯尼亚的波斯尼亚单语使用者，年龄在18至30岁之间。参与者通过两个阶段进行远程评估，接受一系列测试，包括一份背景语言问卷，调查参与者的语言习得历史、当前使用情况和社会经济地位，以及一个新改编的波斯尼亚语版叙事多语言评估工具（MAIN）。尽管传承语言使用者的正确率为97%，单语使用者的正确率几乎为100%，但两组在格标记准确性上仍存在显著差异。仅在传承语言使用者组中，错误显示出格系统简化的趋势以及区分格意义时的不确定性。通过输入的数量和质量以及当前使用频率评估的波斯尼亚语使用情况，被证明是传承语言使用者格标记准确性的一个重要预测指标。相比之下，社会经济地位和德语习得年龄在这些参与者的格准确性方面并未发挥作用。在准确性较高的情况下，波斯尼亚传承语言使用者与其单语对应者在格标记准确性上观察到的数量和质量差异模式，有助于我们理解在第一语言较少被研究的更多样化语言二元组中的传承语言习得情况。
