Kpogo, Kohut & Chang in LSP volume
A paper entitled “Expressing diminutive meaning in heritage Twi: The role of complexity and language-specific preferences” (Kpogo, Kohut, & Chang, 2024) has been published by Language Science Press in the edited volume Formal Approaches to Complexity in Heritage Language Grammars.
Abstract: Twi (Akan) and English can both express diminutive meaning using a morphological strategy (diminutive suffix) or a syntactic strategy (adjectival construction), but they differ with respect to native-speaker preferences — morphological in Twi, syntactic in English. Each strategy in Twi, moreover, is associated with different types of complexity (morphological, phonological, lexical, discourse-pragmatic, and/or inhibitory). In this study, we examined whether English-dominant, second-generation (G2) speakers of Twi in the US would express diminutive meaning in Twi differently from first-generation (G1) speakers. Results from elicited production suggest that G2 does indeed differ from G1 in this respect: whereas G1 relies on the morphological strategy, G2 relies on the syntactic strategy, producing adjectives post-nominally in accordance with Twi syntax. These results are discussed in light of variation in G2 speakers’ morphological awareness and verbal fluency in Twi. Overall, our findings suggest that both the incremental complexity of linguistic options within a bilingual language repertoire and cross-linguistic influence at the level of preferences play a role in explaining G2’s diminutive production.
This study followed Open Science practices, and all data and materials are publicly accessible via the Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/wgqcm/.