Programme StuTS 70

Does CASE trump determiners? Considering blocking effects in heritage Turkishes in Germany and the U.S.

Definiteness in heritage Turkishes

Novembre 19, 2021 👾

We present a study on different patterns of expressing definite meanings in heritage Turkishes. A key finding is that heritage speakers use fewer determiners compared to their monolingual peers. We argue that this is linked to a blocking effect by accusative case which also expresses definiteness. Our hypotheses and findings call for a revisit of discussions around definiteness in Turkishes.

Please find the full abstract as a pdf on the right-hand side of this page.
Short abstract:
We present a study on different patterns of expressing definite meanings in heritage Turkishes. A key finding is that heritage speakers use fewer determiners compared to their monolingual peers. We argue that this is linked to a blocking effect by accusative case which also expresses definiteness. Our hypotheses and findings call for a revisit of discussions around definiteness in Turkishes.