Preserved morphological processing in heritage speakers: A masked priming study on Turkish

In a masked morphological priming experiment, we compared the processing of derived and inflected morphologically complex Turkish words in heritage speakers of Turkish living in Berlin and in native speakers of Turkish raised and living in Turkey. The results show significant derivational and inflec...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Second language research 2019-04, Vol.35 (2), p.173-194
Main Authors: Jacob, Gunnar, Şafak, Duygu Fatma, Demir, Orhan, Kırkıcı, Bilal
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adults
Age
Comparative Analysis
Derivation (Morphology)
Foreign Countries
German
Heritage language
Inflection (Morphology)
Language acquisition
Language instruction
Language Processing
Language Tests
Linguistic Input
Morphemes
Morphological complexity
Morphological processing
Morphology
Morphology (Languages)
Native Language
Native speakers
Orthographic similarity
Priming
Second Language Learning
Semantics
Turkish
Turkish language
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Summary:In a masked morphological priming experiment, we compared the processing of derived and inflected morphologically complex Turkish words in heritage speakers of Turkish living in Berlin and in native speakers of Turkish raised and living in Turkey. The results show significant derivational and inflectional priming effects of a similar magnitude in the heritage group and the control group. For both participant groups, semantic and orthographic control conditions indicate that these priming effects are genuinely morphological in nature, and cannot be due to semantic or orthographic similarity between prime and target. These results suggest that morphological processing in heritage speakers is based on the same fundamental processing mechanisms as in prototypical native speakers. We conclude that heritage speakers, despite the fact that they have acquired the language in a particular setting and were exposed to a relatively limited amount of input, can nevertheless develop native-like processing mechanisms for complex words.
ISSN:0267-6583
1477-0326
DOI:10.1177/0267658318764535