Cover not available

Article In: Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism: Online-First Articles

Morphosyntactic restructuring in a border-shift context

A production study in heritage Slovene

ORCiD logo with link | University of Nova Gorica
ORCiD logo with link | University of Ljubljana
ORCiD logo with link | University of Udine
ORCiD logo with link | University of Nova Gorica
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
Heritage language research has predominantly examined immigrant communities where cross border relocation reduces input and typically renders the heritage language ‘weaker’. This study instead examines heritage Slovene in a non immigrant, border shift context, where speakers remain in place but are incorporated into a new state creating an ‘in situ’ heritage setting with different input dynamics. We compare two such Italian communities, Gorizia–Trieste and Natisone, which differ in the degree of schooling and broader institutional support for Slovene. Using a production task targeting Genitive of Negation and pronominal clitic placement, we compare heritage and monolingual speakers. The Gorizia–Trieste group benefiting from sustained institutional backing patterns closely with monolinguals, whereas the Natisone group shows restructuring in Genitive of Negation and elevated clitic omission, consistent with reduced input and increased processing demands. These results indicate that in border shift settings, strong institutional support can mitigate heritage divergence and challenge simple ‘strong vs. weak language’ characterizations, with some communities approaching balanced bilingual profiles.
Article outline
  • 1.Heritage language in a border-shift context
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1Slovenian speakers in Friuli Venezia Giulia: An overview
    • 2.2Slovene morphosyntax background
      • 2.2.1Genitive of Negation
      • 2.2-2Pronominal clitic placement
  • 3.The present study
    • Genitive of Negation
    • Pronominal clitic placement
  • 4.Method
    • 4.1Participants
    • 4.2Materials
      • 4.2.1Genitive of Negation
      • 4.2.2Clitic placement
      • 4.2.3Creation and recording of stimuli
      • 4.2.4Stimulus adjustment to a local variety
    • 4.3Procedure
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1Statistical analyses
    • 5.2Genitive of Negation sub-experiment
    • 5.3Clitic placement sub-experiment
      • 5.3.1Omissions
      • 5.3.2Clitic ordering errors
      • 5.3.3Substitution errors
      • 5.3.4No response
  • 6.Discussion
    • 6.1Genitive of Negation
    • 6.2Clitic placement
    • 6.3The role of input in border-shift heritage situations
  • Acknowledgments
  • Data availability statement
  • Author Contributions
  • Competing interests
  • Notes
  • References
References (71)
References
Baayen, R. H., Davidson, D. J., & Bates, D. M. (2008). Mixed-effects modeling with crossed random effects for subjects and items. Journal of Memory and Language, 59(4), 390–412. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Badecker, W., & Straub, K. (2002). The processing role of structural constraints on interpretation of pronouns and anaphors. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 28(4), 748–769.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baša, M. K. (1982). Rodilnik zanikanja [Genitive of Negation]. Slavistična Revija, 30(3), 305–321.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bekeš, A. (2016). Slovene language after the Schengen agreement: Will the linguistic borders also disappear? In T. Kamusella & M. Nomachi (Eds.), The Palgrave handbook of Slavic languages, identities and borders (pp. 276–308). Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I. M., & Luk, G. (2012). Bilingualism: Consequences for mind and brain. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 16(4), 240–250. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bogatec, N. (Ed.). (2020). Slovene: The Slovene language in education in Italy. Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bogatec, N., & Vidau, Z. (Eds.). (2020). A community at the heart of Europe. Slovenes in Italy and the challenges of the third millennium. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brehmer, B. (2021). Slavic heritage languages around the globe. In M. Polinsky & S. Montrul (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Heritage Languages and Linguistics (pp. 13–44). Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bylund, E., & Díaz, M. (2012). The effects of heritage language instruction on first language proficiency: A psycholinguistic perspective. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 15(5), 593–609. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cardinaletti, A., & Shlonsky, U. (2004). Clitic positions and restructuring in Italian. Linguistic Inquiry, 35(4), 519–557. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Castilla-Earls, A., Pérez-Leroux, A. T., Martinez-Nieto, L., Restrepo, M. A., & Barr, C. (2020). Vulnerability of clitics and articles to bilingual effects in typically developing Spanish–English bilingual children. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 23(4), 825–835. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1995). The Minimalist program. MIT press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dillon, B., Chow, W.-Y., & Xiang, M. (2016). The relationship between anaphor features and antecedent retrieval: Comparing mandarin ziji and ta-ziji. Frontiers in Psychology, 61, 1966. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dimitrijević-Savić, J. (2008). Convergence and attrition: Serbian in contact with English in Australia. Journal of Slavic Linguistics, 16(1), 57–90. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Drummond, A. (2010). Ibex Farm [computer software]. [URL]
Finocchiaro, C., & Caramazza, A. (2006). The production of pronominal clitics: Implications for theories of lexical access. Language and Cognitive Processes, 21(1–3), 141–180. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fishman, J. A. (1991). Reversing language shift: Theoretical and empirical foundations of assistance to threatened languages. Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Flores, C., & Barbosa, P. (2014). When reduced input leads to delayed acquisition: A study on the acquisition of clitic placement by Portuguese heritage speakers. International Journal of Bilingualism, 18(3), 304–325. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Golden, M., & Sheppard, M. (2000). Slovene pronominal clitics. In F. Beukema & M. den Dikken (Eds.), Clitic phenomena in European Languages (pp. 191–207). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gollan, T. H., Starr, J., & Ferreira, V. S. (2015). More than use it or lose it: The number-of-speakers effect on heritage language proficiency. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 22(1), 147–155. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grgič, M. (2024). Multilingualism as right and choice: A case study of Slovene speakers in Northeast Italy. Zeitschrift für Slawistik, 69(2), 213–228. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grüter, T. (2006). Object (clitic) omission in L2 French: Mis-setting or missing surface inflection? In M. G. O’Brien, C. Shea, & J. Archibald (Eds.), Proceedings of the 8th Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition Conference (GASLA 2006) (pp. 63–71). Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grüter, T., & Crago, M. (2012). Object clitics and their omission in child L2 French: The contributions of processing limitations and L1 transfer. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15(3), 531–549. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Harves, S. (2013). The Genitive of Negation in Russian. Language and Linguistics Compass, 7(8), 405–420. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Herrity, P. (2000). Slovene: A comprehensive grammar. Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hulk, A., & Müller, N. (2000). Bilingual first language acquisition at the interface between syntax and pragmatics. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 3(3), 227–244. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ilić, T., & Deen, K. U. (2004). Object raising and cliticization in Serbo–Croatian child language. In S. Baauw & J. van Kampen (Eds.), Proceedings of GALA 2003 (pp. 235–243). LOT Occasional Series.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ivanova-Sullivan, T., Sekerina, I. A., Tofighi, D., & Polinsky, M. (2022). Language-internal reanalysis of clitic placement in heritage grammars reduces the cost of computation: Evidence from Bulgarian. Languages, 7(1), 24. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kim, K., & Kim, H. W. (2022). Sequential bilingual heritage children’s L1 attrition in lexical retrieval: Age of acquisition versus language experience. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 25(4), 537–547. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
King, K. A., Fogle, L., & Logan-Terry, A. (2008). Family language policy. Language and Linguistics Compass, 2(5), 907–922. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kumar, D. Z. (2022). Skladnja nadiškega in briškega narečja [Syntax of the Natisone Valley and Brda dialects]. Založba ZRC. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kupisch, T., & Pierantozzi, C. (2010). Interpreting definite plural subjects: A comparison of German and Italian monolingual and bilingual children. In K. Franich, K. M. Iserman, & L. L. Keil (Eds.), Proceedings of the 34th Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 245–254). Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kupisch, T., & Rothman, J. (2018). Terminology matters! Why difference is not incompleteness and how early child bilinguals are heritage speakers. International Journal of Bilingualism, 22(5), 564–582. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakshmanan, U., & Lindsey, B. (1998). The Genitive of Negation and the position of NegP in the L2 acquisition of Russian. In S. Montrul & R. Slabakova (Eds.), Proceedings of the 1997 GASLA Conference (pp. 82–92). McGill Working Papers in Linguistics 13.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Laleko, O., & Miroshnychenko, Y. (2022). Grammars in contact: A linguistic study of Russian in Brighton Beach, New York. Russian Language Journal, 72(1–2), 171–192. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Łyskawa, P., & Nagy, N. (2020). Case marking variation in heritage Slavic languages in Toronto: Not so different. Language Learning, 70(S1), 122–156. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mezgec, M. (2024). Slovene schools in Italy. Slovenian Research Institution (SLORI) presentation. [URL]
Milin, P., Filipović Đurđević, D., & Moscoso del Prado Martín, F. (2009). The simultaneous effects of inflectional paradigms and classes on lexical recognition: Evidence from Serbian. Journal of Memory and Language, 60(1), 50–64. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Modyanova, N. (2006). The Genitive of Negation construction in Russian–English bilinguals. In D. Bamman, T. Magnitskaia, & C. Zaller (Eds.), Online Supplement to the Proceedings of the 30th Boston University Conference on Language Development (BUCLD 30). [URL]
Montrul, S. (2010). Dominant language transfer in adult second language learners and heritage speakers. Second Language Research, 26(3), 293–327. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2015). The Acquisition of Heritage Languages. Cambridge University Press. 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
Mykhaylyk, R., & Sopata, A. (2016). Object pronouns, clitics and omissions in child Polish and Ukrainian. Applied Psycholinguistics, 37(5), 1051–1082. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Paradis, M. (1993). Linguistic, psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic aspects of ‘interference’ in bilingual speakers: The activation threshold hypothesis. International Journal of Psycholinguistics, 9(2), 133–145.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pascual y Cabo, D., & Rothman, J. (2012). The (Il)logical problem of heritage speaker bilingualism and incomplete acquisition. Applied Linguistics, 33(4), 450–455. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pavlič, M., & Živanović, S. (2013). The Genitive of Negation in Slovenian. In I. Windhaber & P. Anreiter (Eds.), Proceedings of the 4th Austrian Students’ Conference of Linguistics (pp. 142–162). Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Perez-Cortes, S., Putnam, M. T., & Sánchez, L. (2019). Differential access: Asymmetries in accessing features and building representations in heritage language grammars. Languages, 4(4), Article 4.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pérez-Leroux, A. T., Cuza, A., & Thomas, D. (2011). Clitic placement in Spanish–English bilingual children. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 14(2), 221–232. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pérez-Leroux, A. T., Pirvulescu, M., & Roberge, Y. (2008). Null objects in child language: Syntax and the lexicon. Lingua, 118(3), 370–398. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pirnat, Ž. (2015). Genesis of the Genitive of Negation in Balto-Slavic and its evidence in contemporary Slovenian. Slovene Linguistic Studies, 101, 3–52. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Polinsky, M. (2006). Incomplete acquisition: American Russian. Journal of Slavic Linguistics, 14(2), 191–262.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
Prévost, P., & White, L. (2000). Missing surface inflection or impairment in second language acquisition? Evidence from tense and agreement. Second Language Research, 16(2), 103–133. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Putnam, M. T., Perez-Cortes, S., & Sánchez, L. (2019). Language attrition and the feature reassembly hypothesis. In M. S. Schmid & B. Köpke (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Language Attrition. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
R Core Team. (2022). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. [URL]
Rizzi, L. (1986). Null objects in Italian and the theory of pro. Linguistic Inquiry, 17(3), 501–557.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Romano, F. B. (2020). Ultimate attainment in heritage language speakers: Syntactic and morphological knowledge of Italian accusative clitics. Applied Psycholinguistics, 41(2), 347–380. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rothman, J. (2007). Heritage speaker competence differences, language change and input type: Inflected infinitives in Heritage Brazilian Portuguese. International Journal of Bilingualism, 11(4), 359–389. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scontras, G., Polinsky, M., & Fuchs, Z. (2018). In support of representational economy: Agreement in heritage Spanish. Glossa, 3(1), Article 1.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sopata, A., Rinke, E., & Flores, C. (2024). Null objects in Polish heritage language acquisition in contact with German. International Journal of Bilingualism, 28(1), 79–97. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sorace, A. (2004). Native language attrition and developmental instability at the syntax–discourse interface: Data, interpretations and methods. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 71, 143–145. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2011). Pinning down the concept of ‘interface’ in bilinguals. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 11, 1–33. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stepanov, A., Andreetta, S., & Pavlič, M. (2026). Heritage language in a border-shift context: Differential input effects on sentence comprehension. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. Advance online publication. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sturt, P. (2003). The time-course of the application of binding constraints in reference resolution. Journal of Memory and Language, 48(3), 542–562. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Toporišič, J. (2004). Slovenska slovnica. Založba Obzorja.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tryzna, M. M. (2009). Acquisition of object clitics in child Polish: A deficiency at the syntax–pragmatics interface or evidence for D linking. [Doctoral dissertation, University of Iowa]. IOWA Research Online.
Zehr, J., & Schwarz, F. (2018). PennController for internet-based experiments (IBEX) [computer software]. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue