On the production of bare nouns and case marking in Korean heritage speakers in contact with English

The current study investigates the role of cross-linguistic influence, proficiency, and linguistic experience in the acquisition of Korean as a heritage language. Specifically, we examine Korean noun phrases and case marking among Korean heritage speakers born and raised in the US (n = 17) in comparison to Korean-dominant speakers in South Korea (n = 18). A total of 1,665 production data points were collected through a narrative task (Little Red Riding Hood). The analysis leveraged the differences in the usage of bare noun phrases and particles between Korean and English. The statistical results revealed that heritage speakers prefer noun phrases with a demonstrative over bare noun phrases compared to Korean-dominant speakers, a pattern similar to English structures. Furthermore, heritage speakers were likely to attach the topic marker to noun phrases, when it is less common among Korean-dominant speakers. These distinct patterns were more pronounced in the subject position than in the object position. In addition, Korean proficiency was found to be associated with the usage of bare noun phrases and case marking, with higher proficiency resulting in an increased likelihood of using target forms. These findings provide evidence for L2 cross-linguistic influence in the morphosyntactic domain and lend support to the Bilingual Alignment Approach.