Resultative constructions in heritage Ambon Malay in the Netherlands

Moro, Francesca R.

doi:10.1075/avt.31.07mor

Cited by 11 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Previous studies noticed that in Chinese as L2 learners' acquisition of pivotal sentences and serial-events sentences, they had the problems of underusage and misusages (e.g., [21], [27]). The second-generation heritage language learners were also found to under-employ serial-events sentences in previous studies (e.g., [4], [14], [15]). However, these studies investigated L2 learners from different L1s and regarded misuses as a developmental problem.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 56%

English CFL Learners' Acquisition of le in Chinese Pivotal and Serial-events Sentences: A Corpus-based Study

Tang¹

2020

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Chinese and English have typological differences in marking the temporal categories of verbs in sentences with multiple verbs. The perfective morpheme "le"is conventionally used after V2 to mark the completion of the event-continuum represented by both V1 and V2 in Chinese pivotal or serial-events sentences. In reminiscent English sentences, V1 inflects with tense and takes the suffix "-ed". The current study aims to investigate if the contrast between English and Chinese influences Chinese English as foreign language (CFL) learners' acquisition of "le" in pivotal and serial-events sentences. Via an analysis in HSK dynamic written composition corpus, we found misuses about mis-positioned "le" and lexical collocations in pivotal and serial-events sentences. The results showed that English CFL learners were influenced by English past tense marker "-ed" in the production of "le" in pivotal and serial-events sentences. L2 proficiency was not an influential factor in misusages but played a role in the total usage of these structures, i.e., high-proficiency learners produced these sentences more frequently than low-proficiency learners. It suggests that English CFL learners may have used the tense cue in their L1 to compose Chinese sentences with multiple verbs, and with the development of L2 proficiency, they tended to use pivotal or serial-events sentences more frequently. This finding reveals the morpho-syntactic transfer from English L1 to Chinese L2, contributes to the theories in second language acquisition in general, and gives pedagogical implications on Chinese L2 teaching.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 56%

English CFL Learners' Acquisition of le in Chinese Pivotal and Serial-events Sentences: A Corpus-based Study

Tang¹

2020

lls

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“…'Two predicate' constructions such as those found in Ambon Malay are a typical feature of the Malay varieties that are spoken in eastern Indonesia. In these varieties, complex events tend to be expressed through two or more consecutive verbal predicates (referred to as 'serial verb constructions'10 in Paauw, 2008: 232-236; see also Moro, 2014). In our dataset there are nine instances where T is fronted, against one instance where R is fronted.…”

Section: Give-constructions In Ambon Malaymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ambon Malay prefers po always, while Dutch has a bias for do in corpus data, and for po in de-contextualised elicited data. It has been demonstrated (Boumans, 2006;Onar Valk and Backus, 2013;Moro, 2014) that heritage speakers tend to adapt the frequency of a construction in the heritage language to the frequency of the 'corresponding' construction in their dominant language. In this case, this means that the frequency of po and do constructions in heritage Ambon Malay will be adapted to the Dutch frequencies, and thus be different from that of homeland Ambon Malay.…”

Section: 2mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Give-Constructions in Heritage Ambon Malay in the Netherlands

Moro¹,

Klamer

2015

J Lang Contact

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The domains where languages show variable syntax are often vulnerable in language contact situations. This paper investigates one such domain in Ambon Malay: the variable encoding ofgive-events. We studygive-expressions in the Ambon Malay variety spoken by heritage speakers in the Netherlands, and compare the responses of heritage speakers with those of homeland speakers in Ambon, Indonesia. We report that heritage Ambon Malay shows an innovative higher incidence ofdoconstructions compared to the homeland variety, and a significant decrease in the frequency of ‘two predicate’ constructions. The change that heritage Ambon Malay is undergoing is thus not categorical, but rather involves a change in frequency of certain constructions. We argue that this ‘restructuring by changing frequency’ is due to a combination of factors: influence from Dutch, universal tendencies in language acquisition, and the language history of individual speakers. Apart from a quantitative difference, we also observe a qualitative difference between thegive-constructions of heritage and homeland speakers of Ambon Malay: both groups use different prepositions in the prepositional object construction, a reflection of their different social histories.

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“…Heritage speakers of Ambon Malay are bilingual in Dutch and Ambon Malay, but have Dutch as their dominant language. Previous studies (Aalberse & Moro, 2014;Huwaë, 1992;Lekawael, 2011;Moro, 2014;Moro & Klamer 2015;Tahitu, 1989) have shown that Ambon Malay in the Netherlands is undergoing a substantial number of changes owing to unbalanced bilingualism in general, and to the intense contact with Dutch in particular.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aspectual distinctions in Dutch-Ambon Malay bilingual heritage speakers

Moro

2016

International Journal of Bilingualism

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Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: This paper investigates the effects of Dutch on the tense-aspect system of heritage Ambon Malay, a variety spoken by Dutch-Ambon Malay bilinguals in the Netherlands. The study asks whether the cross-linguistic contrasts between the two languages -Dutch obligatorily marks past/non-past and finiteness, whereas Ambon Malay lacks a grammaticalized expression of these distinctions -has an effect on the aspectual system of heritage Ambon Malay. Design/Methodology/Approach: The database for the study consists of video descriptions provided by 32 bilingual speakers (the experimental groups) and by three control groups: 27 homeland speakers of Ambon Malay, 5 first generation speakers of Ambon Malay in the Netherlands (late bilinguals), and 10 monolingual speakers of Dutch. Data and Analysis: The frequency and distribution of aspect markers is analysed statistically in the four groups. Findings/Conclusions: The analysis of the data reveals that, under the influence of Dutch, the Ambon Malay progressive marker ada has undergone a shift in temporal status and frequency and it is now interpreted as a marker of present tense, as well as of progressive aspect. The other two aspect markers, the iamitive/perfective su and verbal reduplication (iterative) are used significantly less by heritage speakers. Originality: This study shows that when a grammatical category is present and productive in the dominant language of a bilingual heritage speaker, but not in the heritage language, there is a great likelihood that it will undergo contact-induced grammaticalization, even in a relatively short time contact situation. The study also shows that input-related factors, such as transparency and phonological salience, contribute to the (in)stability of aspectual forms in the heritage language. Significance/Implications: This finding has implication for the incomplete acquisition perspective on heritage languages, which sees these languages as grammatically simplified systems (see, e.g., Montrul, 2009;Polinsky, 2008), because it shows that heritage languages can also gain grammatical distinctions previously absent in the (homeland) language.

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Resultative constructions in heritage Ambon Malay in the Netherlands

Cited by 11 publications

References 23 publications

English CFL Learners' Acquisition of le in Chinese Pivotal and Serial-events Sentences: A Corpus-based Study

English CFL Learners' Acquisition of le in Chinese Pivotal and Serial-events Sentences: A Corpus-based Study

Give-Constructions in Heritage Ambon Malay in the Netherlands

Aspectual distinctions in Dutch-Ambon Malay bilingual heritage speakers

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