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Acquisition Strategies in Language Death

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2008

Marion Lois Huffines
Marion Lois Huffines
Affiliation:
Bucknell University
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Abstract

Nonsectarian Pennsylvania Germans who are the first generation in their families to learn English natively, often attempt to learn the Pennsylvania German that their families no longer regularly use. This study assesses the process of acquiring a dying language by investigating learners' use of the Pennsylvania German dative case. Learning strategies are remarkably free of reliance on English rules. Evidence indicates that speakers rely on what they have learned and seek analogies within Pennsylvania German, resorting to English only when other strategies fail. The search for near-congruity identified as operative across languages operates within the learner language as internal analogy. Learners also seek to maximize the distance between English and Pennsylvania German and emphasize the distinctiveness of each.

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Type
Articles
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , March 1991, pp. 43 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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