Best case scenario

Case marking in prepositional phrases in heritage German

Abstract

This article investigates accusative and dative case marking in determiner phrase (DP) complements of prepositions in adolescent first-generation heritage speakers (HSs) and monolingually-raised speakers (MSs) of German. Prepositions were subdivided into three types: single-case prepositions governing one case exclusively, two-way prepositions in accusative contexts, and two-way prepositions in dative contexts. Quantitative and qualitative analyses across speaker groups and within HSs were performed to additionally account for HS heterogeneity. The aim was to inquire whether a) participants differ in their canonical case marking of DP complements of single-case and two-way prepositions, b) the accusative or the dative are more prone to non-canonical case marking within two-way prepositions, and c) HSs’ non-canonical DP complements of single-case prepositions follow specific patterns. Results show that HSs produce slightly fewer non-canonical DP complements of single-case prepositions. Additionally, less non-canonical DPs appear in dative contexts of two-way prepositions than in accusative contexts. across speaker groups. Lastly, HSs’ non-canonical DP complements of single-case prepositions show systematic patterns of morphological underspecification and overgeneralization. Overall, the results of this article point to the fact that case marking is acquired, and more importantly retained, in first-generation HSs.