What influences Russian sentence syntax in bilingual speakers

Russian sentence syntax in bilingual speakers is influenced by several factors stemming from cross-linguistic interaction and language exposure patterns. Key influences include:

• Cross-linguistic transfer: Bilingual speakers may transfer syntactic structures or morphological patterns from their other language(s) into Russian. For instance, the use of indicative past tense instead of conditional present in conditional sentences can reflect transfer from Norwegian or Russian, depending on bilingual context. Similarly, heritage speakers sometimes display syntactic simplifications or nonstandard constructions due to influence from their dominant language. ^{1, 2, 3}

• Language dominance and proficiency: The degree of proficiency and dominance in Russian versus the other language(s) affects syntactic competence and complexity. Bilinguals with stronger exposure or literacy in Russian tend to show fewer syntactic deviations and better mastery of complex structures. ^{4, 5}

• Language-specific grammatical properties: Russian morphology and syntax, such as case marking and flexible word order, can pose challenges to bilinguals, especially when their other language has different morphosyntactic features. This can result in divergent error patterns and processing differences in bilinguals compared to monolinguals. ^{6, 7, 1}

• Cognitive and individual differences: Differences in cognitive control and linguistic experience modulate how bilingual speakers process and produce Russian syntax, including the ability to predict sentence structures and handle lexical interference. ⁸

• Context and language use: Bilinguals may produce varying syntactic complexity depending on discourse context (e.g., conversation vs. expository speech) and language exposure settings. ⁹

In summary, Russian sentence syntax in bilingual speakers is shaped by transfer effects from the other language(s), language dominance and proficiency levels, inherent grammatical differences between languages, cognitive factors, and the communicative contexts in which the languages are used. This results in subtle shifts in syntactic structures, error patterns, and processing in bilingual Russian usage. ^{5, 1, 4, 8, 9}

References

• Bilingual Acquisition of Morphology: Norwegian and Russian Influence on Children’s Sentence Repetition in Estonian.

• Nonstandard Use of the “Reflexive” Affix -sʲa in Russian Speech of Bilingual Speakers of Northern Siberia and the Russian Far East

• Linguistic creativity in heritage speakers

• Literacy instruction and lexicon size determine bilingual reading development of Russian-German children

• One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Once I Caught a Fish Alive: Numerical Phrases in Child and Adult Heritage Russian

• THE COGNITIVE PROCESSING OF THE GRAMMATICAL GENDER OF RUSSIAN NOUNS BY THE RUSSIANS AND TURKIC AND RUSSIAN BILINGUALS

• Morpho-Syntactic Abilities of Unbalanced Bilingual Children: A Closer Look at the Weaker Language

• Lexical interference and prediction in sentence processing among Russian heritage speakers: an individual differences approach

• Bilingual Adolescents’ Complex Syntax Production in Both Languages Across Conversational and Expository Contexts.

• DATA OF PERCEPTIVE SEMANTICS UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF BILINGUAL EXPERIENCE (UZBEK-RUSSIAN LANGUAGE INTERACTION)

• L3 English in the German secondary school context: longitudinal development of bilingual heritage speakers’ multilingual repertoire

• How does a structurally similar background language influence L3 grammars? A study on the syntax of L2/L3 Mandarin [SI 21/3]

• The influence of three-gendered grammatical systems on simultaneous bilingual cognition: The case of Ukrainian-Russian bilinguals

• Effects of crosslinguistic influence in definiteness acquisition: comparing HL-English and HL-Russian bilingual children acquiring Hebrew

• Aspect and tense attrition in Russian-German bilingual speakers

• Syntactic Complexity Effects of Russian Relative Clause Sentences in Children with and without Developmental Language Disorder

• Acquisition of non-contrastive focus in Russian by adult English-dominant bilinguals

• A Comparative Study of Educational Texts for Native, Foreign, and Bilingual Young Speakers of Russian: Are Simplified Texts Equally Simple?

• Acquisition of non-contrastive focus in Russian by adult English-dominant bilinguals

• Sentence comprehension test for Russian: A tool to assess syntactic competence

• Perception of Iconic Russian Elements by English Speakers: Experimental Data

• Child Heritage Language Development: An Interplay Between Cross-Linguistic Influence and Language-External Factors

• Complexity and Simplification in Language Shift

• Russian heritage language development in narrative contexts: Evidence from pre- and primary-school children in Norway, Germany, and the UK

• Sensitivity to microvariation in bilingual acquisition: morphophonological gender cues in Russian heritage language

• Bilinguals’ Sensitivity to Grammatical Gender Cues in Russian: The Role of Cumulative Input, Proficiency, and Dominance