Bi-aspectual verbs in heritage Russian against the background of baseline language dynamics.

What is it about?

Our study investigates language processing in mono- and multilingual settings, focusing on language dynamics in heritage Russian against the background of baseline Russian. In this context, we explore bi-aspectual verbs as an unstable part of Russian grammar. As verbs without morphologically marked expression of aspectual contrasts, bi-aspectual verbs represent a special case within Russian aspectual morphology and demonstrate significant variations in their monolingual use. Our study examines the use of bi-aspectual verbs in heritage Russian acquired as a home language in a multilingual environment in families with migrant background. In contrast to monolingual speakers, heritage speakers operate with polylingual variation, which can comprise single varieties within the same language or even two or more typologically different languages. These language variation mechanisms in heritage speakers represent notable specifics of their language use and the special dynamics of heritage Russian. Therefore, when comparing the use of a dynamic part of the language system, we aim to shed light on the analogous vs specific language processing in baseline and heritage Russian.

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Why is it important?

As a particular case of multilingualism, heritage languages provide an appropriate testing ground for hypotheses about the effects of language contact and real-time processes of language change. Some avenues to the study of language change remain, however, underexplored, such as on language change in baseline languages through the prism of the corresponding contact varieties, e.g., of the migrant heritage languages. This is where our study starts.

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