Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T22:39:27.825Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“Die Muttersprache vergisst man nicht” – or do you? A case study in L1 attrition and its (partial) reversal*,1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2009

DORIS STOLBERG  and
ALEXANDRA MÜNCH
DORIS STOLBERG*
Affiliation:
Mannheim University
ALEXANDRA MÜNCH
Affiliation:
Mannheim University
*
Address for correspondence: Doris Stolberg, Anglistische Linguistik, Universität Mannheim, 68131 Mannheim, Germany[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Is it possible to undo or reverse language attrition? In other words, has there been, in the case of attrition, a permanent change with respect to the speaker's L1 knowledge, or do we only see temporary effects on the control of that knowledge? It is proposed here that the concept of attrition should include the temporary loss of language skills since it is, so far, not clear whether or to what extent once-acquired linguistic abilities can be permanently lost at all, particularly with respect to an L1. A reversal in the development of attrition after renewed contact with the L1 can support the claim that a decrease in L1 proficiency can be temporary, and that it is the accessibility of items and structures that is affected by attrition rather than the L1 knowledge (competence) itself. Our primary research interest in the present study is to analyze what skills and features are recoverable and what phenomena persist, (possibly) indicating permanent loss.

Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 13 , Issue 1: New perspectives on L1 attrition , January 2010 , pp. 19 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

This research was carried out as part of the DFG research project Code-switching, Crossover & Co., headed by Rosemarie Tracy (University of Mannheim) and Elsa Lattey (University of Tübingen). We would like to thank Monika S. Schmid, Kees De Bot and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments. Any remaining shortcomings are, of course, our responsibility.

1

Translation: “The mother tongue you don't forget.” This is a quotation from our informant, BJ.

References

Andersen, R. W. (1982). Determining the linguistic attributes of language attrition. In Lambert, R. D. & Freed, B. F. (eds.), The loss of language skills, pp. 83–118. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Clahsen, H. (1984). Der Erwerb von Kasusmarkierungen in der deutschen Kindersprache. Linguistische Berichte, 89, 1–31.Google Scholar
Costa, A., Colome, A., Gomez, O. & Sebastian-Gallés, N. (2003). Another look at cross-language competition in bilingual speech production: Lexical and phonological factors. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 6 (3), 167–179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fabbro, F. (2002). Introduction: Michel Paradis’ contribution to neurolinguistics. In Fabbro (ed.), pp. 31–46.Google Scholar
Fabbro, F. (ed.) (2002a). Advances in the neurolinguistics of bilingualism: Essays in honor of Michel Paradis. Undine: Forum.Google Scholar
Fuller, J. M. & Lehnert, H. (2000). Noun phrase structure in German–English codeswitching: Variation in gender assignment and article use. International Journal of Bilingualism, 4 (3), 399–420.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, D. W. (1986). Control, activation, and resource: A framework and a model for the control of speech in bilinguals. Brain and Language, 27 (2), 210–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, D. W. (1998). Mental control of the bilingual lexico-semantic system. Bilingualism, Language and Cognition, 1 (2), 67–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gross, S. (2004). A modest proposal: Explaining language attrition in the context of contact linguistics. In Schmid et al. (eds.), pp. 281–297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutz, M. (2004). Is there a natural process of decay? A longitudinal study of language attrition. In Schmid et al. (eds.), pp. 189–206.Google Scholar
Jaspaert, K., Kroon, S. & Van Hout, R. (1986). Points of reference in first-language loss research. In Weltens, B., de Bot, K. & van Els, T. (eds.), Language attrition in progress, pp. 37–49. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Jordens, P., De Bot, K. & Trapman, H. (1989). Linguistic aspects of regression in German case marking. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 11 (2), 179–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keel, W. D. (1994). Reduction and loss of case marking in the noun phrase in German-American speech islands: Internal development or external interference? In Berend, N. & Mattheier, K. J. (eds.), Sprachinselforschung: Eine Gedenkschrift für Hugo Jedig, pp. 93–104. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Köpke, B. (2001). Quel changements linguistiques dans l'attrition de la L1 chez le bilingue tardif? TRANEL 34/35, 355–368.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Köpke, B. (2002). Activation thresholds and non-pathological first language attrition. In Fabbro (ed.), pp. 119–142.Google Scholar
Köpke, B. (2007). Language attrition at the crossroads of brain, mind, and society. In Köpke et al. (eds.), pp. 9–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Köpke, B. & Schmid, M. S. (2004). Language attrition: The next phase. In Schmid et al. (eds.), pp. 1–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Köpke, B., Schmid, M. S., Keijzer, M. & Dostert, S. (eds.) (2007). Language attrition: Theoretical perspectives. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lattey, E. & Tracy, R. (2001). Language contact in the individual: A case study based on letters from a German immigrant in the Northeastern United States. In Ureland, S. (ed.), Language contact in North America – migration, maintenance, and death of the European languages, pp. 413–433. Tübingen: Niemeyer.Google Scholar
Lattey, E. & Tracy, R. (2005). ‘Well, I tell you, das war'n Zeiten!’ − ein deutsch-amerikanisches Sprachporträt. In Hinnenkamp, V. & Meng, K. (eds.), Sprachgrenzen überspringen. Sprachliche Hybridität und polykulturelles Selbstverständnis, pp. 345–380. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar
Louden, M. L. (1999). Incomplete L1 acquisition: The morphosyntax of Kaspar Hauser. In Greenhill, A., Littlefield, H. & Tano, C. (eds.), BUCLD 23 Proceedings, pp. 419–430. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
May, C. P., Zacks, R. T., Hasher, L. & Multhaup, K. S. (1999). Inhibition in the processing of garden-path sentences. Psychology and Aging, 14 (2), 304–313.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Münch, A. (2006). Language mixing and L1 attrition in speech and writing: A profile of a German–English bilingual. Aachen: Shaker.Google Scholar
Münch, A. & Stolberg, D. (2005). “Zwei languages zusammenputten”: Bilingual ways of expressing bicultural identities. In Preisler, B., Fabricius, A., Haberland, H., Kjaejbeck, S. & Risager, K. (eds.), The consequences of mobility, pp. 71–79. Roskilde: Roskilde University. http://www.ruc.dk/cuid/publikationer/mobility/mobility2/Munch_Stolberg/ (retrieved September 29, 2009).Google Scholar
Paradis, M. (2004). A neurolinguistic theory of bilingualism. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paradis, M. (2007). L1 attrition features predicted by a neurolinguistic theory of bilingualism. In Köpke et al. (eds.), pp. 121–133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salthouse, T. A. (1996). The processing-speed theory of adult age differences in cognition. Psychological Review, 103 (3), 403–428.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schmid, M. S. (2002). First language attrition, use and maintenance: The case of German Jews in anglophone countries (Studies in Bilingualism). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmid, M. S. (2004). First language attrition: The methodology revised. International Journal of Bilingualism, 8 (3), 239–255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmid, M. S., Köpke, B., Keijzer, M. & Weilemar, L. (eds.) (2004). First language attrition: Interdisciplinary perspectives on methodological issues. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sorace, A. (2000). Syntactic optionality in non-native grammars. Second Language Research, 16 (2), 93–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stolberg, D. (2007). Changes between the lines: A process-oriented approach to diachronic contact phenomena in written Pennsylvania German. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Mannheim.Google Scholar
Zacks, R. T., Hasher, L. & Li, K. (2000). Human memory. In Craik, F. I. M. & Salthouse, T. A. (eds.), The handbook of aging and cognition, pp. 293–357. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar