Russian in Germany across Generations

该项目调查了德国三代不同的俄语使用者之间的语言传播和变化。该项目的预期结果将有助于我们从理论上理解移民背景下的母语磨蚀以及输入质量对传统语言习得的作用。该项目采用比较方法，包括两个方面的比较：首先，我们将比较德国三代不同俄语使用者的俄语水平：我们将收集以下数据：（i）作为老年人移民到德国的祖父母（=潜在的L1语言使用者）;（ii）作为青少年移民到德国并在早期经历了语言环境快速变化的父母（移民的第1.5代）;（iii）已经在德国出生的儿童（=典型的传统语言使用者）。这三个群体在双语语言习得方面表现出不同的特点。前两个群体与母语磨蚀研究的相关性是显而易见的，但他们的年龄不同，他们的语言环境发生了巨大变化，由于移民。此外，他们都提供了输入的第三组，这为研究输入的质量对传统语言习得的作用打开了可能性。第二，我们的研究将不局限于L1磨蚀和输入质量的影响与孤立的语言属性，但我们将采取一个整体的方法，包括从几个语言层面（语音和音韵，韵律，屈折形态，形态句法，句法和词汇）的属性。这种设计将允许我们检查（a）考虑到磨损过程和语言变化，所调查的特性的（不同的）脆弱程度，以及（B）父母输入的质量对语言习得的重要性，由下一代的俄罗斯人作为少数民族语言取决于所调查的语言特性。（i）哪些非典型特征是通过前几代人的异常输入获得的，哪些是在一代人中出现的？(ii)在这三代人中是否有相同的机制（前几代人仍然存在的特征的磨损或不完全习得、接触引起的变化、语言内部的变化）在起作用？(iii)这些机制是否影响相同的语言水平？如果是，它们在三代人中是否受到相同程度的影响（也涉及由此产生的非规范特征到下一代的“可转移性”）？该项目的另一个预期成果是在德国建立一个俄语注释语料库，作为研究三代人在接触条件下俄语发展的独特来源。

The project investigates language transmission and change among three different generations of speakers of Russian in Germany. The expected results of the project will contribute to our theoretical understanding about first language attrition in immigration settings and the role of quality of input for heritage language acquisition.The project pursues a comparative approach which involves two dimensions of comparison: First, we are going to compare the proficiency in Russian of representatives of three different generations of speakers of Russian in Germany: We will collect data from (i) the grandparents who immigrated as elder adults to Germany (= potential L1 attriters); (ii) parents who immigrated as adolescents to Germany and experienced a rapid change in their linguistic environment at an early point (generation 1.5 of immigrants); (iii) children who were already born in Germany (= typical heritage speakers). All three groups represent different profiles with regard to their bilingual language acquisition. The relevance of the first two groups for research on L1 attrition is obvious, but they differ with regard to their age when their linguistic environment changed dramatically due to immigration. Moreover, they both supply the input for the acquisition of Russian by the third group which opens possibilities for investigating the role of quality of input for heritage language acquisition. Second, our research will not be confined to effects of L1 attrition and quality of input with regard to isolated linguistic properties, but we will adopt a holistic approach by including properties from several linguistic levels (phonetics and phonology, prosody, inflectional morphology, morphosyntax, syntax and lexicon). This design will allow us to check (a) for the (differing) degree of vulnerability of the investigated properties considering attrition processes and language change and (b) the importance of quality of parental input on language acquisition by the subsequent generation of speakers of Russian as a minority language depending on the investigated linguistic property.The project will provide answers to the following research questions: (i) Which non-canonical features are acquired through deviant input of preceding generations and which emerge within one generation?; (ii) Are the same mechanisms (attrition or incomplete acquisition of features which are still present in preceding generations, contact-induced change, language-internal changes) at play in all three generations?; (iii) Do these mechanisms affect the same linguistic levels and, if yes, are they affected to the same degree in the three generations (also regarding the "transferability" of the resulting noncanonical features to the following generation)? Another anticipated result of the project consists in building an annotated corpus of Russian in Germany as a unique source for studying the development of Russian under contact conditions over a time span of three generations.