“The children have they said go-they play the ball.” This sentence reproduces in English an instance of syntax uttered by a person who was born in a family speaking a German minority language in Italy, and who has spent her entire life in the minority community. She is a speaker with lower competence of her own native language, as is often the case in lesser-used language communities where only a part of the speakers achieve a full competence in the minority language. This puzzling case raises some compelling questions: (i) How pervasive are the effects of incomplete L1 acquisition in adult minority speakers in the specific environment of the small language minorities? (ii) Where can we find the linguistic reasons for incomplete L1 acquisition in minority communities? Are there early signals in the language production of children born in these communities that might allow us to predict, even before they begin school, how their minority language competence will be like, as adults? In this squib I present some preliminary results based on two pilot studies that I carried out with my research group on two German(ic) minority languages in Italy. In addition I discuss future research perspectives.
The correlation between unbalanced bilingualism and language decay in small language minorities: the current status of research and future perspectives / Bidese, Ermenegildo. - In: BOLLETTINO DELL'ATLANTE LINGUISTICO ITALIANO. - ISSN 1122-1836. - STAMPA. - 2017, 41:(2017), pp. 95-107.
The correlation between unbalanced bilingualism and language decay in small language minorities: the current status of research and future perspectives
Bidese, Ermenegildo
2017-01-01
Abstract
“The children have they said go-they play the ball.” This sentence reproduces in English an instance of syntax uttered by a person who was born in a family speaking a German minority language in Italy, and who has spent her entire life in the minority community. She is a speaker with lower competence of her own native language, as is often the case in lesser-used language communities where only a part of the speakers achieve a full competence in the minority language. This puzzling case raises some compelling questions: (i) How pervasive are the effects of incomplete L1 acquisition in adult minority speakers in the specific environment of the small language minorities? (ii) Where can we find the linguistic reasons for incomplete L1 acquisition in minority communities? Are there early signals in the language production of children born in these communities that might allow us to predict, even before they begin school, how their minority language competence will be like, as adults? In this squib I present some preliminary results based on two pilot studies that I carried out with my research group on two German(ic) minority languages in Italy. In addition I discuss future research perspectives.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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