Abstract
Although most researchers recognise that the language repertoire of bilinguals can vary, few studies have tried to address variation in bilingual competence in any detail. This study aims to take a first step towards further understanding the way in which bilingual competencies can vary at the level of syntax by comparing the use of syntactic embeddings among three different groups of Turkish–German bilinguals. The approach of the present paper is new in that different groups of bilinguals are compared with each other, and not only with monolingual speakers, as is common in most studies in the field. The analysis focuses on differences in the use of embeddings in Turkish, which are generally considered to be one of the more complex aspects of Turkish grammar. The study shows that young Turkish–German bilingual adults who were born and raised in Germany use fewer, and less complex embeddings than Turkish–German bilingual returnees who had lived in Turkey for eight years at the time of recording. The present study provides new insights in the nature of bilingual competence, as well as a new perspective on syntactic change in immigrant Turkish as spoken in Europe.
Highlights
The main aim of this study is to clarify the linguistic implications of what Grosjean (1997: 165) has called the complementarity principle: “Bilinguals usually acquire and use their languages for different purposes, in different domains of life, with different people
This study aims to take a first step towards further understanding of the way in which bilingual competencies can vary at the level of syntax by comparing the use of syntactic embeddings among three different groups of Turkish-German bilinguals
Studying this group of bilinguals is relevant for the discussion about incomplete acquisition, because we have information about the language competence of different groups of Turkish-German bilinguals: one group who live in Germany, a group of returnees who returned to Turkey a few months prior to the data collection and a group who had been back for eight years at the moment of data collection
Summary
The main aim of this study is to clarify the linguistic implications of what Grosjean (1997: 165) has called the complementarity principle: “Bilinguals usually acquire and use their languages for different purposes, in different domains of life, with different people. The originality of the paper resides in our view in the fact that it demonstrates the diversity in syntactic proficiency found among different groups of Turkish-German bilingualsii It provides evidence for the linguistic consequences of the changes in language choice patterns among returnees, whose use of Turkish increases dramatically after their arrival in Turkey (Daller 1996, 1999), they continue to speak German with other returnees and at school or at university (see section 3 for more details).iii As we have shown in other papers (Daller 1999, Treffers-Daller & Van Hout 1999, Daller, Van Hout & Treffers-Daller 2003), the groups of Turkish-German bilinguals differ significantly from each other on various measures of vocabulary richness, but so far no analysis of the informants‟ syntactic proficiency has been conducted. In the final section we discuss our results in the light of the research questions, and we present some questions for future research
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
