Transgenerational Differences in Turkish Heritage Speakers

The Case of Turkish Definiteness

Dados Bibliográficos

ID19487526
AutoresSerkan Uygun (0000-0002-0880-9280, Bahçeşehir University), Leyla Zidani-Eroğlu (Central Connecticut State University)
Ano2026
Volume11
Fascículo6
Páginas112
Data de publicação2026-06-02
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoLanguages (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 2226-471X • E-ISSN: 2226-471X
EditoraMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/languages11060112
OpenAlexW7163170435
IdiomaEN
Referências citadas59

In Turkish, definiteness is marked through accusative case marking -(y)I and the presence or absence of the prenominal determiner bir (one). Crucially the latter may function as an indefinite determiner depending on the context. Previous studies have shown that definiteness is a vulnerable phenomenon for Turkish heritage speakers, as they have to integrate different language modules (e.g., morphosyntax and discourse/pragmatics). This study tested 49 monolingual Turkish speakers from Türkiye and 32 heritage speakers from the USA via an acceptability judgment task. Twenty-three of the heritage speakers were first-generation, and nine were second-generation heritage speakers. The experimental stimuli were created by manipulating both the grammatical number of the object (singular bir kitap ‘one/a book’ vs. plural kitap-lar ‘books’) and whether the object was preceded by a numeric determiner (bare kitap ‘a book’ vs. non-bare beş kitap ‘five books’) to test the acceptability of the nominal’s correct definiteness marking in a subsequent sentence. The results indicate significant discrepancies between the first- and second-generation heritage speakers, indicating crucial transgenerational variation in the use of the correct form of Turkish definiteness, while the first-generation and monolingual speakers do not differ from each other. These findings suggest that the integration of morphosyntax and discourse/pragmatics in definiteness marking, a particular aspect of linguistic competence within theorizing in generative grammar, does not seem to be fully acquired by second-generation heritage speakers as a result of acquiring Turkish under heritage language conditions

Definiteness · Determiner · Generative grammar · Heritage language · Object (grammar) · Plural · Turkish · Language Development and Disorders · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation