Cristina Flores

This study investigates the use of subject and object pronouns in European Portuguese (EP) by Portuguese–German bilingual children living in Switzerland and their monolingual peers in Portugal. Written narratives from 61 children aged 10–12 were analysed with a focus on null versus overt subject and object realization. Results reveal a striking subject–object asymmetry in the production of the bilinguals: they overspecify subjects, producing overt pronouns more frequently in contexts of topic continuity where more null subjects are expected. Conversely, they underspecify objects, producing null object constructions and avoiding the use of clitics. We attribute the lateness of these phenomena to the complexity of overt subjects and clitic pronouns in the target system. Concerning the observed asymmetry between subjects and objects, we assume that children follow a universal referential hierarchy guiding the distribution of subject and object pronouns while at the same time disregarding discourse-pragmatic constraints.

This study investigates code-switching (CS) within the noun phrase in Portuguese–German bilingual children and adolescents (aged 8–16) in German-speaking Switzerland. Using an elicited imitation task with 49 participants, we examine how linguistic and extralinguistic factors shape CS behaviour. The experiment manipulated matrix language (German vs. Portuguese), insertion type (adjective vs. noun), and adjective position (prenominal vs. postnominal). The results show that CS strategies vary depending on the grammatical properties of the matrix language. In German, prenominal adjective position—regardless of the language of the inserted adjective—was the strongest predictor of repetition accuracy. In Portuguese, the language of the adjective played a central role. We propose the Constraint Integration Model to account for the interaction between matrix-language properties and lexical features. Additionally, older age and more positive attitudes towards German increased the likelihood of producing switched utterances.

This study investigates whether heritage speakers of European Portuguese (EP) show a diachronically advanced behaviour in their comprehension of null object constructions. Based on a comprehension experiment, we compared heritage speakers to homeland speakers of EP, on the one hand and homeland speakers of Brazilian Portuguese (BP) on the other, the latter representing a variety in which null objects have diachronically spread. Our results confirm significant differences between EP homeland speakers and the two other groups but not between heritage speakers and BP homeland speakers, indicating an acceleration of diachronic change in the heritage speaker group. In addition, our study confirms that null objects in islands are available to homeland speakers of EP, challenging earlier analyses of null objects in this variety.

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Este livro propõe uma reflexão sobre a aquisição e manutenção de línguas minoritárias em contextos de contacto linguístico que envolvem o português, a partir de uma perspetiva (psico)linguística. Centra-se em falantes bilingues que adquirem o português em contacto com outras línguas, abordando a aquisição e o uso do português como língua de herança, transmitida em comunidades emigrantes na diáspora, ou como língua maioritária, no caso de falantes bilingues que regressam a Portugal depois de crescerem em contexto de emigração. Com uma abordagem sistemática e acessível, o livro discute conceitos centrais do bilinguismo e das línguas de herança, os mecanismos de aquisição e erosão linguística e os fatores que influenciam o desenvolvimento de duas línguas em contacto. Destinado a investigadores, estudantes e profissionais interessados na aquisição e manutenção de línguas em contextos multilingues, este livro oferece uma visão abrangente e atual sobre os fatores que moldam o desenvolvimento bilingue e a vitalidade das línguas minoritárias.

This epistemological article explores the phenomena of language attrition and stabilization in returnees — bilinguals who spent formative years abroad and later returned to their parents’ homeland. Drawing on empirical and longitudinal research, the paper distinguishes between two returnee profiles: heritage speakers returning to their parents’ country of origin and children who temporarily lived abroad due to parental relocation. Both groups experience a drastic shift in linguistic input, offering a unique window into mechanisms of language development, decline, and re-stabilization. The focus lies on the attrition of early-acquired L2s following return, under conditions of input loss. Studies reviewed here demonstrate how age of return, L2 proficiency, literacy, and continued exposure modulate the rate and depth of attrition. Evidence from case studies — such as German-speaking children returning to Turkey or Portugal — shows that children who return before puberty are especially vulnerable to rapid attrition. In contrast, Japanese–English returnees often retain aspects of their L2, attributed to more consistent post-return input. We support a multidimensional approach to language attrition that integrates linguistic, cognitive, and environmental variables. Returnees serve as a crucial population for refining theories of bilingual development, revealing how input shifts, maturation, and individual differences interact to shape language trajectories.

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This paper examines the use of referential expressions in the subject position in European Portuguese (EP) in a corpus of narratives written by two groups of Portuguese-speaking school-age children: monolingually-raised children living in Portugal and bilingual French-Portuguese children living in Switzerland. We focus on the children’s choice of null and overt subjects, considering both the syntactic context (inter- and intrasentential) and the pragmatic context (topic continuity and topic shift). Additionally, we explore potential age and proficiency effects within the group of bilinguals. Results show an overuse of overt pronouns in intersentential topic continuity contexts in the narratives of the bilingual children, modulated by proficiency and age. This confirms that potential changes to heritage language grammars in EP may affect, in particular, the use of overt subject pronouns. The overuse of strong pronouns reflects that their acquisition is challenging for monolingual and for bilingual children alike, probably due to the complexity and variability of overt subject pronouns in the adult grammar.

Nota Prévia ao n.º 11 da RAPL.