Abstract
This study investigates nominal reference in Korean narrative discourse by heritage speakers of Korean whose dominant language is English. In particular, the study tests the Interface Hypothesis, which states that language structures involving an interface between syntax and other cognitive domains are difficult to acquire completely or are highly susceptible to attrition. Unlike previous studies, the results from a film retelling task reveal that heritage speakers used zero anaphora as frequently as L1 speakers. However, unlike L1s, heritage speakers employed more frequent topic/subject shifts across sentences and used zero anaphora for topic shifts. The overall results support the processing account for the Interface Hypothesis.
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