The Restructuring of Inflectional Morphology in Heritage

The Restructuring of Inflectional Morphology in Heritage Georgian

Cass Lowry and LeeAnn S. StevensThe Graduate Center, CUNY

11 June 2019 11th Heritage Language Research Institute - Lowry & Stevens 1

Eleventh Heritage Language Research InstituteUniversity of New Mexico

11 June 2019

Heritage inflectional morphology


Benmamoun, Montrul & Polinsky (2013)

More Divergent Case, Number, Gender, etc.

Subject Agreement

Object Agreement

AspectTense

Baseline language

Nominal domain

Verbal domain

Cross-linguistic evidence

• Nominal inflection > Verbal inflection• Hindi (Montrul et al. 2012)

• Russian (Polinsky 2006)

• Hungarian (Fenyvesi 2000; de Groot 2005)

• Arabic (Albirini et al. 2013)

• Georgian ???

• Object agreement > Subject agreement• Hungarian (Bolonyai 2007; Fenyvesi 2000, 2005)

• Georgian ???


Baseline Georgian man me da-m-i-nax-a3SG.ERG 1SG.NOM PRV-1-VER-see-3SG.PST

‘She saw me.’

Heritage Georgian

• Relatively recent immigrant community in the US• Heritage speakers are mostly

children


0200400600800

100012001400160018002000

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

Num

ber o

f New

Res

iden

tsYear

Georgians Obtaining Lawful Permanent Resident Status by Year (1992-2015)

U.S. Department of Homeland Security (2017)

early 00’s

1992

Heritage Georgian


Montrul (2016)

• Relatively recent immigrant community in the US• Heritage speakers are mostly

children

Present Study


Research Questions

1) Does grammatical restructuring in Heritage Georgian follow the cross-linguistic cline observed in the HL literature?

Nominal Case > Object Agreement > Subject Agreement

2) What individual variables predict grammatical restructuring in child Georgian heritage speakers?• Fluency? (e.g., Polinsky 2008)• Lexical knowledge? (e.g., Polinsky 2006)• Age?


Participants

• 33 Georgian-Americans (Heritage Speakers) in Brooklyn, NYC• 26 Early Arrival Ages 3;10-16;1 (M=8;7, SD=3;1)

• 21 born in the US

• 5 born in Georgia, age of arrival < 6 (M=3;5, SD=1;10)

• 7 Late Arrival Ages 9;8–24 (M=16;1, SD=5;9)• born in Georgia, age of arrival 7-14 (M=9;3, SD=2;4)

• 30 Georgians in Tbilisi and Gori area • Ages 5;5-14;2 (M=8;7, SD=2;6)


Task• Narrative telling (Berman & Slobin 1994)

• Frog, Where are you? (Mayer 1969)

• Lexical proficiency• Georgian -> English translation of words

• Language history and background questionnaire

*Georgian control group only told narrative in Georgian and completed questionnaire


RQ 1 - Group ResultsDoes grammatical restructuring in Heritage Georgian follow the cross-linguistic cline observed in the HL literature?

Nominal Case > Object Agreement > Subject Agreement


Nominal Case

11 June 2019

11th Heritage Language Research Institute - Lowry & Stevens 11

* *

*

Part. 6 (10;5)*da bichi dainaxa…and boy.nom see.3sg.pst

‘and the boy saw….’-Subj should be Ergative

Part. 33 (16;1)*da aiyvans bichiand take.3sg.pres boy.nom

‘and it takes the boy’-Obj should be Accusative

Verbal Agreement

11 June 2019

11th Heritage Language Research Institute - Lowry & Stevens 12

**

Part. 1 (8;3)*putkrebi gamoekida dzaghls

bees chase.3sg.pst dog‘the bees chased the dog’

-Subj Agr should be PL

Part. 6 (10;5)*tqva imis dzaghli shhh…said his dog shhhhh

‘he told his dog “shhhhh’-verb w/ Obj Agr: utxra

Obj Agreement > Subj Agreement


Nominal Case > Verbal Agreement

RQ 2 – Effect of Speaker VariablesWhat individual variables predict grammatical restructuring in child Georgian heritage speakers?


Analysis of Speaker Variables – Early Arrivals

• Independent variables• Verbal Fluency – Relative Fluency Index (Stevens et al. 2019) & Georgian syllables per min.• Lexical Knowledge – Lexical Score• Age (in months)

• Dependent variables• Subject Verbal Agreement • Subject Case • Object Case


Individual Results

Lexical ScoreAgeFluency score

Lexical ScoreAgeFluency score


Subject Verbal Agreement Subject Case

+ + Lexical ScoreAgeFluency score

Object Case

Does non-standard inflection predict non-

standard inflection?

• %NS Obj Case X

• %NS Subj Case - %NS Subj Agr• w/n person, Yes!• r = 0.633, p ≤ .001• w/n utterance, No.

Is there systematic restructuring of

individual grammars?

Review of Findings

• Child GE HSs in US are showing restructuring • Nominal morphology > Verbal morphology Consistent• Subj Agr > Obj Agr Novel

• Individual factors co-occur with restructuring• Lexical knowledge is predictive of restructuring Consistent• Speech rate not predictive of restructuring Novel

• Restructuring across inflectional domains within individual’s grammar• Except for object nominal case


Discussion of novel findings

• Agreement restructuring: Heritage Georgian vs Heritage Hungarian• Subj and Obj agreement maybe equally likely to diverge

• Driven by L-specific morphological paradigms

• Speech-rate not predictive• Originally argued to reflect slow-down in lexical access • Could reflect adult’s metalinguistic awareness & intentional planning


Studying lesser studied HLs

• Heritage “status” affects languages differently• Important for community language revitalization & maintenance efforts• Important for linguistic theory & understanding language contact


ThanksAll participants

in Brklyn, Gori, Axaldaba & Tbilisi

Shorena BarbakadzeIvan GoderdzishviliTamta KobakhidzeTea MuradashviliAni Kotolashvili

Gita MartohardjonoAlan Juffs

Martin ChodorowChristen N Madsen II

Henderson Family, Robert T. Henderson Endowment Fund

The Restructuring of Inflectional Morphology in

Heritage Georgian

Cass Lowry & LeeAnn S. Stevens11th HLRI

[email protected] June 2019 11th Heritage Language Research Institute - Lowry & Stevens 21

REFERENCES


Albirini, A., Benmamoun, E., & Chakrani, B. (2013). Gender and number agreement in the oral production of Arabic heritage speakers. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 16(1), 1–18.Benmamoun, E., Montrul, S., & Polinsky, M. (2013). Heritage languages and their speakers: Opportunities and challenges for linguistics. Theoretical Linguistics, 39(3–4), 129–181. https://doi.org/10.1515/tl-2013-0009Berman, R. A., & Slobin, D. I. (1994). Relating Events in Narrative: A Crosslinguistic Developmental Study. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Bolonyal, A. (2007). (In)vulnerable agreement in incomplete bilingual L1 learners. International Journal of Bilingualism, 11(1), 3–23. Retrieved from Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA). (85653055; 200803433)De Groot, C. (2005). The grammars of Hungarian outside Hungary from a linguistic-typological perspective. In Anna Fenyvesi (Ed.), Hungarian language contact outside Hungary (pp. 351–370). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Fenyvesi, A. (2005). The grammars of Hungarian outside Hungary from a linguistic-typological perspective. In A Fenyvesi (Ed.), Hungarian lanugage contact outside Hungary (pp. 351–370). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Fenyvesi, Anna. (2000). The affectedness of the verbal complex in American Hungarian. In A Fenyvesi & K. Sándor (Eds.), Language contact and the verbal complex of Dutch and Hungarian: Working papers from the 1st Bilingual Language Use Theme Meeting of the Study Centre on Language Contact, November 11-13, 1999 (pp. 94–107). Szeged, Hungary: JGyTF Press.Mayer, M. (1969). Frog, Where Are You? New York: Dial Books for Young Readers.Montrul, S. (2016). Heritage language development: Connecting the dots. International Journal of Bilingualism, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006916654368Montrul, S., Bhatt, R., & Bhatia, A. (2012). Erosion of case and agreement in Hindi heritage speakers. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 2, 141–176.Polinsky, M. (2006). Incomplete Acquisition: American Russian. Journal of Slavic Linguistics, 14(2), 191–262.Polinsky, M. (2008). Gender under Incomplete Acquisition: Heritage Speakers’ Knowledge of Noun Categorization. Heritage Language Journal, 6(1), 40–71.U.S. Department of Homeland Security. (2017). Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: 2015. Washington DC: Office of Immigration Statistics. Retrieved from www.dhs.gov

Appendices


Relative Fluency Index

• Relative measure of fluency developed in Stevens et al. (2019)

• Calculation based on Edinburgh Handedness Inventory, in line with a suggestion by Birdsong (2016)• (LA – LB) / (LA + LB) * 100 = range from -100 to 100

• Gives a measure of fluency that accounts for individual variation in speech rate


Ge Syllables per minute

cor.test(df_merged$SubjAgrNS, df_merged$ge_spm)

cor -0.404 p = 0.04988 *cor.test(df_merged$SubjCaseNS, df_merged$ge_spm)

cor -0.330 p = 0.1153cor.test(df_merged$DObjCaseNS, df_merged$ge_spm)

cor 0.111 p = 0.6039


Lexical Proficiency Measure

• English Frequency List – COCA• Georgian Frequency List – Frequency Dictionary from online sources

• 15 words from each of 0-1k, 1-2k, 2-3k, 4-5k most freq. lexemes in Ge and Eng

• 56% N; 25% V; 19% Adj.

• Participants heard Georgian, translated into English until they couldn’t get ~5 in a row


Early Arrival, Verb TAM, outlier included


Tense series 1, Pres-future

1 (keteba) 2 (lodini) 3 (laparaki) 4 (siyvaruli) copula TOTAL

eb 138 18 51 45 0 252

ebi 7 47 3 12 153 222

Tense series 2, Past-aorist


eb 314 3 29 4 0 350

ebi 1 313 3 10 6 333

Tense series 3, Perfect


eb 1 0 0 0 0 1

ebi 0 0 0 0 0 0

Models and LS means


Subj Case

Fixed effects:

Estimate Std. Error z value Pr(>|z|)

(Intercept) 5.1551 0.5427 9.499 < 2e-16 ***

NYC Early -3.2536 0.6043 -5.384 7.28e-08 ***

NYC Late -1.0165 0.9122 -1.114 0.265

Group lsmean SE df asymp.LCL asymp.UCL

GE NA 5.16 0.543 Inf 4.09 6.22

NYC Early 1.90 0.363 Inf 1.19 2.61NYC Late 4.14 0.804 Inf 2.56 5.71


Obj Case

Fixed effects:


(Intercept) 6.2253 0.9941 6.262 3.79e-10 ***

NYC Early -2.8520 0.9334 -3.055 0.00225 **

NYC Late -0.9922 1.4462 -0.686 0.49266


GE NA 6.23 0.994 Inf 4.28 8.17



Subj Agreement

Fixed effects:


(Intercept) 4.6355 0.3351 13.832 < 2e-16 ***

NYC Early -1.9513 0.4020 -4.854 1.21e-06 ***

NYC Late -0.4557 0.6480 -0.703 0.482


GE NA 4.64 0.335 Inf 3.98 5.29



Majority of Subj Agr error Sg for Pl[1] "putkrebi gamoekida dzaghls" [2] "bashvi da dzaghli gadavarda

mdinareshi" [3] "ro daidzinen" [4] "patara bichi ... naxo" [5] "yea da dzaghli….patara bichi

….ebdzenede ebdzenede" [6] "da mere naxo aqa" [7] "da mere naxo" [8] "umm... dzaghli da bichi uyurebs

.. ar vici ra iyo….beyeka" [9] "gaighvidza dzaghli da bichi"

[10] "da naxe" [11] "dzaghli chamoxto….umm.... buzebi da tavis saxli"

[12] "buze...buzebi am .wavi...undoda wavid" [13] "gabrazda" [14] "da dzaghlstan mivida" [15] "bichi da dzaghli chavarda" [16] "bichi da dzaghlic wyalshichavarda" [17] "bichi da dzaghli ?? ragacaesmoda" [18] "bichi da dzaghli naxo" [19] "bichi da dzaghli ipovonbekekebi dediko da mamiko" [20] "dzaghli da bichi tqva" [21] "da bekekebi tqva paka" [22] "da bzikebi miyveba dzaghls"

[23] "bichi da dzaghli chavardatbashi" [24] "mere buzebi dauvarda da" [25] "ro daimalos" [26] "es bichi da misi dzaghli uyurebsbayayis bichs otaxshi" [27] "da gamea" [28] "exla idzinebs dzaghli da bichi" [29] "da ro gaighvidzeb dzaghli da bichi" [30] "axla dzaghli da bichi edzebsbayays" [31] "da axa .. dzaghli.. da bichsedzebs bayayi tyeshi"


Majority of Subj Agr error Sg for Pl[32] "da gaabraze buzebi" [33] "axa buzebs umm idzevsdzaghls" [34] "gavarda bichi da dzaghli" [35] "exla patara bavshvi uyurebbayay...s" [36] "exla bashvi da dzaghli idzinebs" [37] "bashvi da dzaghli gaighvidza" [38] "exla orive dzaghli da bashvi uh una uyurebs yvelgan misi otaxidanda tancacmelshi"[39] "rato qeni da" [40] "exla buzebi chamovida" [41] "daidzina patara bichmam da dzaghlmam"

[42] "da mere ar icode bichi" [43] "is da mere bichi da dzaghligadavarda" [44] "roca gaighvidza bashvma da dzaghlma" [45] "mere dzaghlma da bashvmaedzebda yvelgan" [46] "da yvirodes" [47] "ukan naxo" [48] "ver ipovan" [49] "mere daica dzaghli da bichi" [50] "es dzirs davartya" [51] "da mere eg bichi undawavidiodis" [52] "medzebnos amas"

[53] "bziqebi gaubrazda dzaghls da" [54] "bziqebs upwkinda" [55] "da ori bayayi dainaxet" [56] "mere erti ori sam otxi xutieqvsi kide patara bayayi dainaxet" [57] "da erti patara bayayi waighon" [58] "da bichis otaxshi bichi da dzaghli uyurebda bayays" [59] "ar icodes" [60] "buzebi sadac iyo" [61] "mere buzebi gamovida" [62] "ro patara bayayebic iyo manda" [63] "daxvdat uhh... carieli banka" [64] "bayayma micen erti shvili"


Majority of Subj Agr error Sg for Pl[65] "iyo erti bashvi dzaghli da bayayi" [66] "bashvma da dzaghlmadaidzina" [67] "bichi da dzaghli bayayistvisdzebna daiwyen" [68] "da garet gasdzaxen" [69] "mere es bichi da dzaghlidaidzina" [70] "mere bichi da dzaghligaighvidza" [71] "yvelgan edzeba dzaghli da bichi" [72] "da dzaghli uyurebde" [73] "romelic dzan bevri futqrebi iyo" [74] "mere kide es futqrebi da

ummm like dajden oh no" [75] "da bayayebi iyo eger" [76] "bavshvi da dzaghli uyurebsbayays" [77] "naxet da naxet" [78] "yvel sul yvel naxet" [79] "mere bavshvma da dzaghlmayepavda" [80] "maram cudi suni naxat , naxet" [81] "mere buzebi ukbinan dzaghls" [82] "da naxo" [83] "da buzebi movida dzaghlstrakze" [84] "da yepoda"

[85] "da mere chamovarda bashvi da dzaghli" [86] "mere bashvi da dzaghli raghacausmindoda...imisi bayayi" [87] "da mere naxet" [88] "ro iyo bayayi da meore bayayi" [89] "ara mara mere erti bayayiaighon" [90] "game rodesac dzinavs bashvsda dzaghls" [91] "is patara bashvi da dzaghliwavida" [92] "imitom ro bevri buzebishemofrinda"


Obj Agreement present (N=191)

• edzeb = 59 uyureb = 27


[1] "da edzaxoda" [2] "putkrebi gamoekida dzaghls" [3] "edzaxoda" [4] "daemshvidoba yvela bayayebs" [5] "gaubradza" [6] "bichi shemoadjda" [7] "putqrebi dzaghls gaikidnen" [8] "da edzenebda edzene (sigh)" [9] "yea da dzaghli….patara bichi

….ebdzenede ebdzenede" [10] "yvelgan edezbda yvelgan" [11] "da bichi unda daudzaxos panjaridan" [12] "da bichi utxra gacherdi"

[13] "dzaghli da bichi udzaxden" [14] "da daudzaxa bekekas" [15] "dzaghlmam aloka bichis saxe(apparently)" [16] "da tavis dzaghli imeebsetamasheba...bzikebs" [17] "da bzikebi miyveba dzaghls" [18] "bu miyveba patara bichs" [19] NA [20] "da dzaghls euneba chumad" [21] "mat daxvdat win iremi" [22] "pexze uyura" [23] "da utxra tavs dzaghls"

[24] "mere dzaghlma uyura shignit magaze" [25] "mere buzebi dauvarda da" [26] "daudzaxam um um qvaze" [27] "daudzaxa" [28] "utxat chumad" [29] "da udzaxis" [30] "imitom bichi gaghvidza" [31] "da gaabraze buzebi" [32] "da udzaxis"

Obj Agreement present (N=191)[34] "da exla gaubrazda is dzaghls"

[35] "dzaghls usunebs uh suni" [36] "da dzaghls etamasheba buzebs" [37] "exla utxa dzaghls bashvs shhh" [38] "tavis dzaghli usunebs uh tavis.....bayayi" [39] "exla bichi edzax...edzaxis patarabayays da" [40] "edzaxis da edzaxis da edzaxisbichmam" [41] "da mere ukbina patara bichs cxviri" [42] "exla kide etamashebda dzaghli is ragacaze...txeze" [43] "udzaxis .... bayays....bayaystvis" [44] "da mere gamoushva bichi" [45] "da mere bichi utxra dzaghls" [46] "manamde (dzaghlma….) futqmara

gaikida dzaghls" [47] "da ragacebs uketeba" [48] "da dzaghls gaecheda tavi bankashi" [49] "da bichi zevit adgas" [50] "dzaghli tavze ejda bashvs" [51] "da bichi eubneba (chumad) dzaghls" [52] "dzaghli etemasheba xes" [53] "da dzaghli mizdevs" [54] "dzaghls eubneba gachumdi" [55] "naxvamdis eubneba magis ojaxs da" [56] "da mere etkina" [57] "da dzaghlstan itamasheba" [58] "daudzexen \"bayayi, bayayi\"" [59] "da gaubrazda" [60] "da daudzaxen"

[61] "da bichi uhh groundhog-ze daudzaxa\"bayayi\"" [62] "bziqebi gaubrazda dzaghls da" [63] "bziqebs upwkinda" [64] "da mere dzaghlic usunebda" [65] "da utxra dzaghls" [66] "da gaubrazda dzaghls" [67] "da misdeven"


Obj Agreement present (N=191)[68] "chiti bichs gaubrazda da" [69] "gaubrazda xari" [70] "bayayma micen erti shvili" [71] "kargad bichma.... kargad bicma utxra" [72] "bichma gaubrazda dzaghls" [73] "rom enaxat bayayi" [74] "bichs daetaka iremi" [75] "da dzaghli usunebda (mgoni imgens ra qvia) futqrebi mgoni"[76] "mere bichi utxra dzaghlstan chumad" [77] ", dzaghli exmareba" [78] "edzaxian" [79] "edzaxian am bayays" [80] "bichi gaubrazdeba" [81] "iseve edzaxis bayays"

[82] "dzaghli kide futqris budes echxubebaragaca" [83] "futkrebi dzaghls esevian" [84] "mere bu gamoekideba am bichs" [85] "es bichi isev bayays edzaxis" [86] "dzaghli mizdevs" [87] "bichi eubneba dzaghls" [88] "dzaghlic exmareba" [89] "mara dzaghli epereba" [90] "dzaghlic dazdevs" [91] "amasobashi dzaghli uyepavs futqrebs" [92] "gaubrazdnen futqrebi" [93] "ra gautkdat isa…bude" [94] "da gaikidnen dzaghls" [95] "gaubrazda es chiti da"

[96] "edzaxis" [97] "bichi daaxta irems tavze" [98] "da dzaghli dasdevs am irems" [99] "ro daanebos tavi bichs" [100] "da uyeps" [101] "patara bichi eubneba dzaghls" [102] "da daemshvidobes bayayebs" [103] "tavi gaecheda im chikas" [104] "da mere uhhh dazdeven dzaghls" [105] "ar daajdes"


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The Restructuring of Inflectional Morphology in Heritage