Marie-Michelle Monéreau-Merry
MS, MPhil, CCC-SLP
Loraine K. Obler, Ph.D
Maria Polinsky, Ph.D
Martin Gitterman, Ph.D
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Incomplete Acquisition in a Language
 Late language learners
 Early learners
 Heritage Speakers


a) Broad definition
b) Narrow definition
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6
Developmental Path of the Heritage Language
Among U.S. Born Heritage Speakers
Features of
first
language
Heritage
language
acquisition
Features of
second
language
acquisition
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Continuum Among Heritage Speakers
(Polinsky & Kagan, 2007)
Basilect
Mesolect
Baseline
Acrolect
Moderate
Reanalysis
High
Reanalysis
Low
Reanalysis
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Sudden Language Interruption (Pallier et al.,2008)
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Problematic Areas in the
Heritage Language
 Semi-literate or illiterate in the heritage language
(Montrul, 2008)
 Limited vocabulary skills
 Reduced speech rate when compared to native
speakers (Polinsky, 2008)
 Difficulty with gender inflection (Anderson, 2001;
Silva-Corvalán, 2003; Polinsky, 2008)
 Poor control of morphology (Sekerina, 2005;
Montrul, 2008)
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Section II:
 Heritage language of study Haitian-Creole
 Genesis of Haitian-Creole
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Haitian-Creole
 Bona fide language in par with French (DeGraff, 2000)
 Developed on the island of Haiti (Saint-Domingue)
 Haitian-Creole is a combination of a 17th and 18th
century French variety and West African languages.
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West African Languages
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Plantation History in
Saint-Domingue
Société d’habitation
• Small farming units
Société plantation
• Large plantations
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Genesis of Haitian-Creole
 Language bioprogram hypothesis (Bickerton, 1984)
 Basilectilization process (Chaudenson, 1992)
 Relexification hypothesis (Lefebvre, 1999)
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Post-Nominal Determiners
 A hallmark of French Creoles around the world is
post-nominal determiners.
 Post-nominal determiners in Haitian-Creole may be
evidence of first language interference by adult
Africans who were attempting to acquire the French
variety (LeFebvre,1996).
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Comparative Syntax
Haitian-Creole
Fongbe
 M manje krab la.
 N du ason o.
 I eat crab (Det)
 I eat crab (Det)
Translation
 “I ate the crab.” (in
question/that we know of).
Translation
 “I ate the crab.” (in
question/that we know of)
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Comparative Syntax
Haitian-Creole
Standard French
 pwason an
 le poisson
 fish the (det)
 the (det) fish
Translation
“the fish”
Translation
“the fish”
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Section III
 Definite articles in Haitian-Creole
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Definite Article Rules
 If a word ends in a nasal consonant the definite
article is nan or *lan.
 If a word ends with a nasal vowel or if the final vowel
is preceded by a nasal consonant, the definite article
is an.
 If the word ends in a non-nasal vowel, than the
definite article is *a or in some regions it is *an
 Otherwise la/lan is utilized.
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 If the final position of
the word is a nasal
consonant, the correct
phonological form of
the definite article
becomes nan:
Kann nan
*Kann lan
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An
•If the final position of the
word is an oral vowel and
is preceded by a nasal
consonant, the correct
phonological form of the
definite article becomes
an:
Fami an
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An
•If the final position of
the word is a nasal
vowel, the phonological
form of the definite
article becomes an:
Chyen an
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A
 If the last sound of
the word is an oral
vowel and is
preceded by an oral
consonant, the
correct phonological
form of the definite
article becomes a:
Krapo a
*Krapo an
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 If the last sound of the
word is a consonant and
is preceded by an oral
vowel, it becomes la:
*Chat la
Chat lan
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Section III:
 Purpose of the study
 Research questions
 Predictions
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Research Question I
 Are there differences in the production of the
morphophonological form of the definite articles
during a translation task comparing two groups of
early learners of Haitian-Creole?
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Prediction I
 The responses of the heritage speakers during the
definite article translation task, will differ from the
responses of the native speakers.
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Prediction I cont….
 Heritage speakers will reanalyze the definite articles
as characterized by omission and substitution
differences, and native speakers will perform at
ceiling or near ceiling level.
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Research Question II
 Are there differences in the definite article
recognition task, between the two groups of early
learners of HC, whereby the participants will be
required to select the definite articles that
correspond with the same forty-four nouns as in the
translation task?
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Prediction II
 In the definite article recognition task, the heritage
speakers, as a group, will perform significantly better
than they did on the translation task, however not at
ceiling.
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Prediction II cont….
 Their correct responses will not be characterized
with automaticity. By contrast, the native speakers’
responses will be accurate and immediate.
34
Research Question III
 Are there differences in the frequency of definite
articles produced, between the two groups of early
learners of HC, during a narrative discourse task?
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Prediction III
 There will be significant differences between
heritage speakers and native speakers in the
production of definite articles during the
narrative discourse task. Heritage speakers will
produce fewer definite articles than native
speakers, and demonstrate deletion and
substitution errors.
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Summary
 The heritage speakers will deviate from the native
controls in the following categories:
 Translation of sentences with definite articles
 Selecting the definite articles that correspond with
the nouns
 Producing and employing definite articles correctly
during narrative discourse
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Section IV
 Participants
 Research Design
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Participants
5 Heritage Speakers of HC
Bilinguals
2 Native Speakers of HC
Trilingual
Age (29-35)
M = 30.0 (SD =1.0)
M = 32.0 (SD =4.2)
Sex
M: 2 / F: 3
F: 2
Education
High: 4 / Medium: 1
College education and
graduate school for those
with high education. Three
years of college for the
participant with medium
education.
2 : High education
French Medium Elementary
and High School
College and Professional
School in the U.S.
Length of residency in the
U.S. born (dominant in
12 years
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(i) Socio-economic status during
childhood and adulthood
(vi) Attitude towards the heritage
language
(ii) Attending church services during
childhood and adulthood
conducted in ethnic languages
(vii) Residing in a community with a
significant population of HaitianAmericans during childhood and
adulthood
(iii) Age of arrival of parents to the
U.S
(viii) Proficiency in Haitian-Creole
and French
(iv) Residing with a non-English
speaking grandparent during
childhood
(ix) Educational attainment of the
participants
(v)Experiences with translation
(x) Personal ethnic identity
(xi) Literacy in the heritage
languages
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Social Language Data
 Pilot data collected from the social language
questionnaire form indicated that 80% of the
heritage speakers reported that they were literate in
the heritage language, and during their childhood
they attended religious services conducted in the
ethnic language.
 In addition, they also indicated that they resided
with non-English speaking grandparents during
their childhood.
 All participants indicated they had experience with
translation.
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 Translated responses were analyzed as:
(i) correct/incorrect
(ii) types of reanalysis (e.g., omissions and
substitutions)
(iii) form distribution of reanalysis
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Task 2
 Participants were instructed to select the definite
articles that corresponded with the same forty-four
nouns as in the first task.
 Five trial items of the definite articles were
presented with each noun (e.g., a, an, nan, la, lan).
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Task 2: cont…
 “The Cat”
 Chat a
 Chat an
 Chat nan
 Chat la
 Chat lan
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Task 2: Scoring
 Responses were measured in the following categories:
(i) immediately correct
(ii) correct after a short pause (5 sec)
(iii) correct after a longer pause (more than 5 sec)
(iv) incorrect
(v) uncertain
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Narrative Discourse
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Narrative Discourse
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Section V:
 Results
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Task I: Translation Task
Production of Definite Articles through Translation
42.5
Average Score
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
(SD = 2.12)
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(SD = 2.92)
Heritage Speakers
Native Speakers
(Z-1.94, p=0.05)
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Individual Scores on Translation Task
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Patterns of Reanalysis on
Task 1
Translate
Native Speaker
Interference
2
Heritage Speaker
Lexical Borrowing
7
Phonemic Cueing
12
Substitutions
21
3
Deletions
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0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Sum of Errors
60
Patterns of Reanalysis on Task 1
Substitution and Deletion Patterns of Definite Articles
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Native Speaker
Heritage Speaker
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25
Number of Errors
25
20
15
13
9
10
5
1
1
1
0
a
an
la/lan
nan
Type of Errors
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Reanalysis Performed
by Heritage Speakers
Substitution choices
Target
Definite
Articles
la/lan
la/lan
a
3
an
1
nan
13 (la)
a
an
1
1
nan
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Summary of Translation Task
 Heritage speakers produce reanalysis on definite
articles




Deletions
Substitutions
Nan was more vulnerable to reanalysis
La/lan were less susceptible to reanalysis
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Task II: Recognition Task
Native vs. Heritage: Average Definite Article Judgement Score
50
(Z= -1.95, p= 0.051)
44.0
45
34.2
40
Average Score
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Heritage Speakers
Native Speakers
Speaker
64
Definite Article Recognition Task
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Reanalysis Performed on the Definite Article
Recognition Task
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Patterns of Substitution
Target
Definite
Articles
La/lan
a
an
nan
La/lan
a
26
an
5 (la)
nan
11 (la)
1
2
3
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Differences
Between Definite Article Tasks
(Z= -1.84, p= 0.066)
Translation vs. Recognition Task
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Summary
 Heritage speakers reanalyzed the definite articles
that corresponded to the nouns.
 The definite articles a and nan were more
vulnerable to reanalysis than la/lan.
 Heritage speakers performed more comparable to
the natives on the recognition task than on the
translation task.
 However they required multiple repetitions and
demonstrated greater processing time in selecting
the definite articles.
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Task III: Narrative Discourse
Frequency of Definite Article Use During Narrative Discourse
Z= -1.56, p= 0.12
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38.5
50
Average Score
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22.2
30
20
10
0
Heritage Speakers
Native Speakers
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Reanalysis of Definite Articles
(z = -2.02, p = 0.04)
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Patterns of Reanalysis During Narrative
Discourse
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Estimated Time During Narrative
Discourse
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Calculations
Participants
Words Produced
During Narrative
Discourse
Words Produced
During the First
Minute
HS1
629
91
HS2
576
65
HS3
827
86
HS4
197
87
HS5
278
72
NS 1
940
102
NS2
943
101
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Section VI
 Discussion
 Clinical Implications
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Discussion
 Consistent with the review of the literature on
heritage speakers, the results of this study
suggest that heritage speakers have poor control
of morphology.
 Despite exposure to Haitian-Creole during their
childhood, heritage speakers from this cohort,
differed in the production of the definite articles.
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Discussion
 Some definite articles were more vulnerable to
reanalysis than others (eg., a, nan).
 Substitution choice among the heritage speakers
were the definite articles la/lan.
 Incomplete acquisition or language attrition?
 Emergence of a new variety among New York
second Haitian-Americans?
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Conclusion
 Important to study the pediatric population of this
ethnolinguistic group to gain clarity on the
developmental path of the heritage language.
 These findings will permit educators to provide
appropriate services to:
i) school age immigrant children
ii) U.S. born school age heritage speakers
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Acknowledgements
 Dr. Loraine K.Obler
 Dr. Maria Polinsky
 Dr. Robert Mathesis
 Dr. Irina Sekerina
 Dr. Martin Gitterman
 Dr. Gail Smith
 E. Vincent Merry Esq.
 Isaiah and Pierre Merry
 Marie-Lourdes Neree Monéreau
 Carolyne Monereau-St. Louis
 Youngmi Park
 Participants
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Mesi anpil!
Merci beaucoup!
Thank you very much!
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Lexical Borrowing from English
Native vs. Heritage: Lexical Borrowing from the English
Language
20
8.6
18
16
Average Score
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0.0
0
Heritage Speakers
Native Speakers
Speaker
81
Lexical Borrowing from the English
Language
Lexical Borrowing Using English Language
30
26
25
Scores
20
15
10
7
7
5
3
0
0
HSP1
HSP2
HSP3
HSP4
HSP5
0
0
NSP6
NSP7
Participants
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