In:Widening Contexts for Processability Theory: Theories and issues
Edited by Anke Lenzing, Howard Nicholas and Jana Roos
[Processability Approaches to Language Acquisition Research & Teaching 7] 2019
► pp. 185–206
Chapter 8Processability Theory as a tool in the study of a heritage speaker of
Norwegian
Published online: 28 November 2019
https://doi.org/10.1075/palart.7.08hje
https://doi.org/10.1075/palart.7.08hje
In this article, we employ aspects of Processability Theory (PT) to study the
language of one fourth generation heritage speaker of Norwegian in America. This man, who we
refer to as Lars, was almost 50 years old when we first met and recorded him in 2010, and to
our knowledge he is among the youngest Norwegian-Americans still able to speak Norwegian as
a heritage language in the Upper Midwest. His dominant language was Norwegian until he
started school, when English took over this role. When we met him the first time, he had not
spoken Norwegian to any substantial extent for several decades.
When we examine his language, we find a number of grammatical deviations from
the baseline – the language as spoken in the old world, and we discuss the possible
explanations for these; are they related to the quality of the input, are they due to
attrition or are they the result of incomplete acquisition? In the discussion, we include
certain aspects of PT, and based on this, we claim that attrition is the most likely
explanation for the reduced structures in Lars’ Norwegian.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.The speaker and the community
- 3.Lars’ language
- 4.The input
- 5.Lars’ language and PT stages
- 5.1Stage 2: Inflection
- 5.2Stage 3: Phrasal information exchange
- 5.3Stage 4: Interphrasal information exchange
- 5.4Stage 5: Distinguishing main and subordinate clauses
- 6.Language attrition or incomplete acquisition: Discussion and conclusion
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