Cover not available

Article published In: Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism
Vol. 13:3 (2023) ► pp.343–371

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

Who did what to whom, and what did we already know?

Word order and information structure in heritage and L2 Russian

ORCiD logo with link | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
 | Arizona State University
 | Stony Brook University
 | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Published online: 20 August 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.20045.ion
Abstract
This paper reports on an experimental investigation of what second language (L2) learners and heritage speakers of Russian know about the relationship between word order and information structure in Russian. The participants completed a bimodal acceptability judgment task, rating the acceptability of SVO and OVS word orders in narrow-focus contexts, under neutral prosody. Heritage speakers behaved like the control group of baseline speakers, preferring SVO order in answer to object questions, and OVS order in answer to subject questions. In contrast, L2 learners preferred SVO order regardless of the context. While the heritage speaker group was more proficient than the L2 group, proficiency alone cannot account for differences in performance: specifically, with regard to acceptance of OVS order for subject narrow focus, heritage speakers improved with proficiency, but L2 learners did not. It is proposed that heritage speakers have an advantage in this domain due to early age of acquisition (cf. (2008). Incomplete acquisition in Bilingualism: Re-examining the age factor. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). This finding is consistent with prior literature on narrow focus with heritage speakers of other languages, and suggests that this phenomenon is not particularly vulnerable in heritage languages.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background and study motivation
    • 2.1Russian word order
      • 2.1.1Information structure, word order and prosody
      • 2.1.2Word order and IS in child Russian and Ukrainian
      • 2.1.3Word order and IS in adult learner and heritage Russian
    • 2.2Narrow focus in HS and L2 populations
      • 2.2.1Narrow focus realization with HSs and L2ers of other languages
      • 2.2.2Narrow focus, transfer, and HS advantages
    • 2.3Research questions
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Proficiency tests
      • 3.2.1Proficiency cloze test
      • 3.2.2Case check test
    • 3.3Bimodal AJT
      • 3.3.1Materials
      • 3.3.2Prosodic properties of target items
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Cloze test and case check tests
    • 4.2Bimodal AJT results
      • 4.2.1Analysis 1: Three-group comparison
      • 4.2.2Analysis 2: Proficiency effects
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (74)
References
Au, T., Knightly, L., Jun, S., & Oh, J. (2002). Overhearing a language during childhood. Psychological Science 131, 238–243. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Avrutin, S., & Brun, D. (2001). The expression of specificity in a language without determiners: Evidence from child Russian. In A. Do, L. Dominguez, & A. Johansen (Eds.), Proceedings of the 25th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 70–81). Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bailyn, J. (1995). A configurational approach to Russian ‘free’ word order. Doctoral dissertation, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
Bivon, R. (1971). Element order. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brun, D. (2005). What children definitely know about definiteness: Evidence from Russian. In S. Franks, F. Gladney, & M. Tasseva-Kurktchieva (Eds.), Formal approaches to Slavic linguistics 131 (pp. 68–79). Michigan Slavic Publications.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bryzgunova, E. A. (1980). Intonacija [Intonation]. In N. J. Švedova (Ed.), Russkaja grammatika [Russian grammar] (Vol. 11). Nauka.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chen, C.-y. (2020). The acquisition of Mandarin by heritage speakers and second language learners. (PhD dissertation), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
Cho, J., & Slabakova, R. (2014). Interpreting definiteness in a second language without articles: The case of L2 Russian. Second Language Research, 301, 159–190. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Christinsen, R. H. B. (2018). Ordinal – regression models for ordinal data. R package version 2018-04-25. Cran. [URL]
Dussias, P., & Sagarra, N. (2007). The effect of exposure on syntactic parsing in Spanish-English bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and cognition, 10(1), 101–116. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dyakonova, M. (2004). Information structure development: Evidence from acquisition of word order in Russian and English. Nordlyd: Tromsø Working Papers on Language and Linguistics, 32(1), 88–109.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gor, K. (2019). Morphosyntactic knowledge in late second language learners and heritage speakers of Russian. Heritage Language Journal, 16(2), 124–150. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gundel, J. (2003). Information structure and referential givenness/newness: How much belongs in the grammar?. Journal of Cognitive Science, 41, 177–199.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2019). Focus in heritage Hungarian. Language Acquisition, 26(1), 46–72. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hopp, H. (2009). The syntax-discourse interface in near-native L2 acquisition: Off-line and on-line performance. Bilingualism: Language and cognition, 12(4), 463–483. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ionin, T., Goldshtein, M., Luchkina, T., & Styrina, S. (2020). Word order and information structure in Russian as a heritage or second language. In M. Brown & A. Kohut (Eds.), Proceedings of the 44th annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 210–223).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ionin, T., & Luchkina, T. (2018). Focus on Russian scope: An experimental investigation of the relationship between quantifier scope, prosody, and information structure. Linguistic Inquiry, 49(4), 741–779. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2019). Scope, syntax and prosody in Russian as a second or heritage language. In J. Camacho & M. Cabrera (Eds.), Exploring interfaces: Lexicon, syntax, semantics and sound (pp. 141–170). Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ionin, T., & Montrul, S. (2010). The role of L1-transfer in the interpretation of articles with definite plurals in L2-English. Language Learning, 60(4), 877–925. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Isurin, L., & Ivanova-Sullivan, T. (2008). Lost in between: The case of Russian heritage speakers. Heritage Language Journal, 6(1), 72–104. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ivanova-Sullivan, T. (2014). Theoretical and experimental aspects of syntax-discourse interface in heritage grammars. Leiden: Brill. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Janssen, B., & Peetrs-Podgaevskaja, A. (2012). A case against case: acquisition of Russian case in monolingual and bilingual children. In R. Genis, E. D. Haard, J. Kalsbeek, E. Keizer, & J. Stelleman (Eds.), Between west and east: Festschrift for Wim Honselaar on the occasion of his 65th birthday (pp. 319–339). Pegasus.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jasinskaja, K. (2016). Information structure in Slavic. In C. Féry & S. Ishihara (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of information structure (pp. 709–732). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Junghanns, U., & Zybatow, G. (1997). Syntax and information structure of Russian clauses. In Proceedings of the Annual Workshop on Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics (FASL): The Cornell Meeting (pp. 289–319). Michigan Slavic PublicationsGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kallestinova, E. (2007). Aspects of word order in Russian. PhD dissertation. University of Iowa.
King, T. H. (1995). Configuring topic and focus in Russian. CSLI PublicationsGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kiss, K. É. (1998). Identificational focus versus information focus. Language, 741, 245–273. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Laleko, O. (2011). Restructuring of verbal aspect in heritage Russian: Beyond lexicalization. International Journal of Language Studies 5(3), 13–26.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2017). Information status and word order in heritage and L2 Russian. Paper presented at The Tenth Heritage Language Research Institute, Urbana-Champaign, IL.
(In press). Discourse and information structure in heritage languages. In S. Montrul & M. Polinsky (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of heritage languages and linguistics. Cambridge University Press.
Laleko, O., & Dubinina, I. (2017). Word order production in heritage Russian: Perspectives from linguistics and pedagogy. In S. Bauckus & S. Kresin (Eds.), Connecting across languages and cultures: A heritage language festschrift in honor of Olga Kagan (pp. 191–215). Slavica.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lambrecht, K. (1994). Information structure and sentence form: topic, focus and the mental representations of discourse referents. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leal, T., Destruel, E., & Hoot, B. (2019). The acquisition of focus in L2 Spanish. Second Language Research, 35(4), 449–477. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2018). The realization of information focus in monolingual and bilingual native Spanish. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 8(2), 217–251. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lee-Ellis, S. (2012). Looking into bilingualism through the heritage speaker’s mind. PhD dissertation. University of Maryland.
Lenth, R. (2020). emmeans: Estimated marginal means, aka least-squares means, aka least-squares means. R Package, version 1.4.4.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Luchkina, T., Ionin, T., Lysenko, N., Stoops, A., & Suvorkina, N. (2021). Evaluating the Russian Language Proficiency of Bilingual and Second Language Learners of Russian. Languages, 6(2), 83. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Luchkina, T., & Stoops, A. (2013). Cloze test as a measure of L2 Russian proficiency. Paper presented at the Second Language Research Forum 2013, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT.
Lukyanchenko, A., & Gor, K. (2011). Perceptual correlates of phonological representations in heritage speakers and L2 learners. In Proceedings of the 35th Boston University Conference on Language Development.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Montrul, S. (2005). Second language acquisition and first language loss in adult early bilinguals: Exploring some differences and similarities. Second Language Research, 21(3), 199–249. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2010). Dominant language transfer in adult L2 learners and heritage speakers. Second Language Research, 31, 293–327. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2011a). Interfaces and incomplete acquisition. Lingua, 1211, 591–604. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2011b). Morphological errors in Spanish second language learners and heritage speakers. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 33(2), 163–192. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Montrul, S., Bhatt, R., & Girju, R. (2015). Differential object marking in Spanish, Hindi, and Romanian as heritage languages. Language, 91(3), 564–610. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Montrul, S., Foote, R., & Perpiñán, S. (2008). Gender agreement in adult second language learners and Spanish heritage speakers: The effects of age and context of acquisition. Language Learning, 581, 503–553. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Montrul, S., & Ionin, T. (2012). Dominant language transfer in Spanish heritage speakers and L2 learners in the interpretation of definite articles. Modern Language Journal, 961, 70–94. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mykhaylyk, R. (2011). Factors contributing to child scrambling: Evidence from Ukrainian. Journal of Child Language, 39(3), 553–579. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2013). Bilinguals vs. monolinguals: Where is the difference? Studia Linguistica, 67(1), 101–122. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Neeleman, A., & Titov, E. (2009). Focus, contrast and stress in Russian. Linguistic Inquiry, 401, 514–524. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Odlin, T. (1989). Language transfer: Cross-linguistic influence in language learning. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Polinsky, M. (2007). Incomplete acquisition: American Russian. Journal of Slavic Linguistics, 141, 191–262.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2008). Russian gender under incomplete acquisition. Heritage Language Journal, 6(1). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2011). Reanalysis in adult heritage language: A case for attrition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 331, 305–328. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2018). Heritage languages and their speakers. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Polinsky, M., & Scontras, G. (2020). Understanding heritage languages. Bilingualism: Language and cognition, 23(1), 4–20. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
R_Core_Team. (2020). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R project. [URL]
Schwartz, B. D., & Sprouse, R. A. (1996). L2 cognitive states and the Full Transfer / Full Access model. Second Language Research, 121, 40–72. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sirotinina, O. B. (1965). Porjadok slov v russkom jazyke. [‘Word order in Russian’]. Saratov State University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Slioussar, N. (2011). Russian and the EPP requirement in the tense domain. Lingua, 1211, 2048–2068. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sorace, A. (2011). Pinning down the concept of “interface” in bilingualism. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 11, 1–33. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2016). Referring expressions and executive functions in bilingualism. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 6(5), 669–684. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sorace, A., & Serratrice, L. (2009). Internal and external interfaces in bilingual language development: Revisiting the processing vs. representation distinction. The International Journal of Bilingualism, 13(2), 195–210. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Svetozarova, N. (1998). Intonation in Russian. In D. Hirst & A. di Christo (Eds.), Intonation systems: A survey of twenty languages (Vol. 31, pp. 235–255). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tremblay, A. (2011). Proficiency assessment standards in second language acquisition research. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 33, 339–372. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Unsworth, S. (2005). Child L2, adult L2, child L1: Differences and similarities: A study on the acquisition of direct object scrambling in Dutch. Ph.D. dissertation, Utrecht University
(2007). L1 and L2 acquisition between sentence and discourse: Comparing production and comprehensio. Lingua, 1171, 1930–1958. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
VanPatten, B., Collopy, E., & Qualin, A. (2012). Explicit information and processing instruction with nominative and accusative case in Russian as a second language: Just how important is explanation? The Slavic and East European Journal, 56(2), 256–276.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
White, L. (2003). Second language acquisition and Universal Grammar. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2011). Second language acquisition at the interfaces. Lingua, 1211, 577–590. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zubizarreta, M. L. (1998). Prosody, focus and word order. MIT press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (6)

Cited by six other publications

Roberta D’Alessandro, Michael T Putnam & Silvia Terenghi
2025. Heritage Languages and Syntactic Theory, DOI logo
Namboodiripad, Savithry
2025. Shared processing strategies as a mechanism for contact-induced change in flexible constituent order. Linguistics Vanguard DOI logo
Ionin, Tania, Tatiana Luchkina & Maria Goldshtein
2024. Contrastive focus is acquirable: An investigation of Russian contrastive focus with English/Russian bilinguals. Second Language Research 40:3 ► pp. 709 ff. DOI logo
Luchkina, Tatiana, Tania Ionin & Maria Goldshtein
2024. Acquisition of non-contrastive focus in Russian by adult English-dominant bilinguals. Frontiers in Psychology 15 DOI logo
Meir, Natalia, Olga Parshina & Irina A. Sekerina
2024. Prediction in bilingual sentence processing. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 14:4 ► pp. 544 ff. DOI logo
Ionin, Tania
2023. Formal Theory‐Based Methodologies. In Current Approaches in Second Language Acquisition Research, ► pp. 33 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 24 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue