How Flexible Are Grammars Past Puberty? The Case of Relative Clauses in Turkish‐American Returnees

IF 3.5 1区文学 Q1 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

Language Learning Pub Date : 2025-07-23 DOI:10.1111/lang.70003

Aylin Coşkun Kunduz, Silvina Montrul

引用次数: 0

Abstract

How flexible are grammars after puberty? To answer this, we test returnees: heritage speakers (HS) born in an immigration context who returned to their homeland in later years. If returnees are targetlike, then language is still malleable after puberty; in contrast, if maturational effects are in play, postpuberty returnees will show variability. Thirty‐two Turkish‐American returnees, 30 Turkish HS in the United States, and 30 monolinguals completed an acceptability judgment task and a sentence repetition task on a vulnerable structure in Turkish HS, namely relative clauses. Results showed that (a) returnees patterned with monolinguals, who significantly outperformed HS in both tasks; and (b) age of return to Turkey, length of residence, and contact with English upon return were not significant predictors of returnees’ performance. This suggests that complex morphosyntax is malleable after puberty. These findings provide a unique angle on the roles of age and input variables in bilingual language acquisition and maintenance.

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青春期过后的语法有多灵活？土耳其-美国归国人员的关系从句案例

青春期后的语法有多灵活？为了回答这个问题，我们对回归者进行了测试：出生在移民背景下，后来回到祖国的传统演讲者（HS）。如果海归具有目标性，那么语言在青春期后仍然具有可塑性；相反，如果成熟效应在起作用，青春期后回归者将表现出变异性。32名土耳其裔美国海归、30名在美土耳其裔美国人以及30名单语者完成了关于土耳其裔美国人的一个脆弱结构即关系分句的可接受性判断任务和句子重复任务。结果表明：(a)海归与单语者形成模式，单语者在两项任务中的表现都明显优于HS；(b)返回土耳其的年龄、居住时间和回国后与英语的接触不是回归者表现的显著预测因素。这表明复杂的形态句法在青春期后是可塑的。这些发现为研究年龄和输入变量在双语语言习得和维持中的作用提供了一个独特的视角。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Language Learning Multiple-

CiteScore

9.10

自引率

15.90%

发文量

期刊介绍： Language Learning is a scientific journal dedicated to the understanding of language learning broadly defined. It publishes research articles that systematically apply methods of inquiry from disciplines including psychology, linguistics, cognitive science, educational inquiry, neuroscience, ethnography, sociolinguistics, sociology, and anthropology. It is concerned with fundamental theoretical issues in language learning such as child, second, and foreign language acquisition, language education, bilingualism, literacy, language representation in mind and brain, culture, cognition, pragmatics, and intergroup relations. A subscription includes one or two annual supplements, alternating among a volume from the Language Learning Cognitive Neuroscience Series, the Currents in Language Learning Series or the Language Learning Special Issue Series.