Verb placement in embedded clauses in heritage Norwegian

Bibliographic Data

ID15087546
AuthorsHelene R Jensberg (0009-0008-1632-2609, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, corresponding author), Merete Anderssen (0000-0003-0310-9426, Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment and Climate), Merete B Anderssen (UiT The Arctic University of Norway), Terje Lohndal (0000-0002-8514-1499, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway; UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Norway), Björn Lundquist (0000-0002-1746-6769, UiT The Arctic University of Norway), Marit Westergaard (0000-0003-2702-9615, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Norway; Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway)
Year2025
Volume29
Issue4
Pages1094-1120
Publication date2025-08-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Bilingualism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1367-0069 • E-ISSN: 1756-6878
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/13670069241260250
OpenAlexW4401031290
LanguageNL
Citations received1
References cited44

Purpose: This study examines embedded clauses with adverb/negation in heritage speakers of Norwegian in North America. We ask (a) whether the production of these structures is different from the baseline, (b) how the production is different, and (c) why it is different. Methodology: 50 second to fifth-generation speakers from the Corpus of American Nordic Speech (CANS) are compared with a baseline consisting of 13 first-generation speakers from the same corpus and a large corpus study on verb placement in embedded clauses in European Norwegian. Findings: The speakers behave differently from the baseline, as they use main clause word order in embedded clauses, especially when the finite verb is an auxiliary. Furthermore, there is a correlation between main clause word order in embedded clauses and V2 violations in main clauses. We propose a combination of crosslinguistic influence, language-internal drift, differential acquisition, and activation of the heritage language as possible factors affecting the speaker’s production. Originality: Whereas several studies have looked at main clause word order in the same and similar populations, not as much work has been done on embedded clauses. We also combine data from the same informants from a previous study to look at correlations between the behaviour in main and embedded clauses. Implications: This study illustrates how heritage languages are affected by different factors across speakers; where some speakers seem to simplify the language, others have held on to fine-grained distinctions

Adverb · Dependent clause · Heritage language · Language production · Linguistics · Natural language processing · Negation · Norwegian · Political science · Sentence · Verb · Word order · Computer Science · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Phonetics and Phonology Research · Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access