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The use of referring expressions in narratives by Mandarin heritage language children and the role of language environment factors in predicting individual differences*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 November 2014

RUITING JIA  and
JOHANNE PARADIS
RUITING JIA*
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of Alberta
JOHANNE PARADIS
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of Alberta
*
Address for correspondence: Ruiting Jia, 2-40 Assiniboia Hall, Department of Linguistics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6G 2E7ruiting@ualberta.ca
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Abstract

This study investigated the referring expressions used for first mentions of participants and entities in narratives by Mandarin heritage language (HL) and monolingual children. Referring expressions for first mentions in Mandarin comprise lexical, morphological and syntactic devices. Results showed that HL children used less adequate referring expressions for first mentions than the monolinguals, mainly due to overgeneralization of classifiers and lack of vocabulary knowledge. However, HL children did not differ from monolinguals in their use of relative clauses and post-verbal NP placement to mark first mentions. These results suggest that incomplete acquisition of the HL may vary across different linguistic subdomains (Montrul, 2008); specifically, domains requiring a great deal of input to acquire, such as vocabulary and the large repertoire of classifier morphemes, might be more vulnerable in HL speakers than syntax. Mixed modeling analyses revealed that older age of arrival, higher maternal education levels and a rich and diverse Mandarin environment at home predicted stronger narrative outcomes, also pointing to an important role for input in HL acquisition.

Keywords

referring expressionfirst mentionsincomplete acquisitionheritage language acquisition
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 18 , Issue 4 , October 2015 , pp. 737 - 752
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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Footnotes

*

We would like to express our appreciation to the children, parents and teachers in Canada and China whose cooperation made this research possible. Many thanks to the principal of Dovercourt school, Dr. Gerry Falk, and the principal of Meadowlark school, Mr. Ken Lam, for helping us to find Mandarin heritage language children. This research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (standard research grant # 410-2010-0123), for which we are grateful.

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