Factors of variation, maintenance and change in Scandinavian heritage languages

Abstract

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: I investigate variation and change in heritage languages, focusing on descendants of 19th- / early 20th-century North Germanic immigrant languages in America. I compare a battery of predictors (e.g. token frequency, language attitude) against a baseline grammar, something often framed in terms of ‘transfer’, ‘incomplete acquisition’ and ‘attrition’. I examine which particular changes have been attributed to which factors. Findings/Conclusions: Relevant factors belong to two main categories: those favouring maintenance and those more likely to trigger change. Factors that support maintenance are structural ones (typically syntax, phonology and morphology), frequency of use, and external factors. Factors that contribute to change are articulation, language attitudes, and a series of cognitive aspects: incomplete acquisition and attrition, transfer and convergence, processing, memory, complexity, and overgeneralisation. © 2018 SAGE Publications