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Language serves as a bridge between ideas and communication, influencing how individuals perceive and interact with the world. Psychologists have long debated whether language shapes thought or vice versa. This discussion gained grip with Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf in the 1940s, who proposed that language determines thought, a concept known as linguistic determinism. They suggested that the vocabulary and structure of a language influence how its speakers think and perceive reality.
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Language, whether spoken, signed, or written, consists of specific components: lexicon and grammar. The lexicon is the vocabulary of a language, comprising its words. Grammar is the set of rules used to convey meaning through the lexicon. For example, English grammar adds “-ed” to most verbs to indicate past tense. Words are formed by combining phonemes, which are the basic sound units of a language. Different languages have different sets of phonemes (e.g., “ah” vs.
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Adolescents from ethnic minority backgrounds face a multifaceted journey in forming their identities, shaped by the intersections of cultural expectations and personal exploration. For these adolescents, identity formation involves not only typical developmental challenges but also navigating the perceptions and attitudes of the majority culture. As they grow, adolescents in ethnic minority groups often become increasingly aware of stereotypes, social biases, and discrimination, all of which...
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Heritage language and linguistic theory.

Gregory Scontras1, Zuzanna Fuchs2, Maria Polinsky2

  • 1Department of Psychology, Stanford University Stanford, CA, USA.

Frontiers in Psychology
|October 27, 2015
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Heritage speakers, or unbalanced bilinguals, often shift from their heritage language to a dominant language in childhood. Case studies reveal typical linguistic deficits and abilities, informing broader theories of multilingualism and native speaker competence.

Keywords:
experimental methodsheritage linguisticsmorphosyntaxmultilingualismpragmaticssemanticssyntax

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Area of Science:

  • Linguistics
  • Psycholinguistics
  • Sociolinguistics

Background:

  • Multilingualism is common, with heritage speakers (unbalanced bilinguals) frequently shifting from their heritage language to a dominant community language early in life.
  • Understanding heritage speakers is crucial for a comprehensive view of linguistic competence.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To demonstrate the relevance of heritage linguistics to the broader study of linguistic competence.
  • To document typical deficits and abilities of heritage speakers through case studies.
  • To explore theoretical questions in linguistics informed by heritage speaker data.

Main Methods:

  • Presentation of a series of case studies on heritage linguistics.
  • Analysis of morphosyntactic feature systems, argument structure, relativization syntax, and scope interpretations in heritage speakers.

Main Results:

  • Identified typical deficits and abilities in heritage speakers.
  • Documented phenomena such as morphosyntactic reorganization, argument structure reanalysis, attrition of relativization, and simplified scope interpretations.
  • Highlighted diverging developmental trajectories and outcomes in heritage speakers.

Conclusions:

  • Heritage speaker case studies have practical and methodological implications for multilingualism research.
  • The study informs broader concepts in linguistic inquiry, including complexity and native speaker competence.