Heritage Languages and Syntactic Theory

Roberta D'Alessandro, Professor of Linguistics / Syntax and Language Variation, Utrecht University,Michael T. Putnam, Professor German and Linguistics, The Pennsylvania State University,Silvia Terenghi, Assistant Professor of Multilingualism, Utrecht University

Roberta D'Alessandro is Professor of Linguistics / Syntax and Language Variation at Utrecht University. She has recently concluded an ERC project on Microcontact, from which this volume has emerged. She has published on heritage language syntax and syntactic (micro-)variation, impersonal pronouns, and the syntax-phonology interface in journals including Glossa, Theoretical Linguistics, Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, and The Annual Review of Linguistics. She is currently Head of the Linguistics section at Utrecht University.

Michael T. Putnam is Professor of German and Linguistics at The Pennsylvania State University. He has published widely in generative approaches to Germanic morphology and syntax and bilingualism, with his work appearing in journals such as Bilingualism: Language and Cognition and The Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics. He has a special interest in heritage varieties of Germanic languages spoken throughout the world. He is currently the Director of the Linguistics Program and Associate Director of the Center for Language Science at Penn State.

Silvia Terenghi is Assistant Professor of Multilingualism at Utrecht University. She carried out her PhD research within the ERC-funded Microcontact project, where she investigated the syntax of indexicality in heritage and attrited Italo-Romance varieties, with specific reference to demonstrative forms. Her main research interest lies in syntactic variation and change in both contact contexts and diachrony and the results of her research have been presented at a range of conferences and in journals including Glossa, Journal of Historical Syntax, and Languages.

Heritage languages and syntactic theory: An introduction, Roberta D'Alessandro, Michael T. Putnam, and Silvia TerenghiPart I. Linguistic theory and language variation1. Microcontact and syntactic theory, Roberta D'Alessandro, Luigi Andriani, Alberto Frasson, Manuela Pinto, Luana Sorgini, and Silvia Terenghi2. Systematic and predictable variation in heritage grammars: The role of complexity, diachronic change and linguistic ambiguity in the input, Esther Rinke and Cristina FloresPart II. Sentence structure3. Heritage language gaps, Maria Polinsky4. Word order and prosody in the expression of information structure, Oksana LalekoPart III. The Verb Phrase5. Non-active voice in heritage grammar, Artemis Alexiadou and Vasiliki Rizou6. The shape and size of defective domains: Non-finite clauses in Pennsylvania Dutch, Michael T. PutnamPart IV: The DP7. Parallel changes in pronominal clitic systems: A view from heritage Romance and Slavic, Alberto Frasson8. The DP layer in heritage Norwegian: Vulnerability and nominal architecture, Terje Lohndal & Yvonne van Baal