OV/VO word order in heritage Russian: Is Transfer at Play?

Abstract

The present study investigates the choice of OV/VO word order in heritage and monolingual Russian. In monolingual Russian, OV/VO order is claimed to be sensitive to the object realization (noun vs. pronoun) and clause type (main vs. embedded). In heritage Russian, OV/VO order is claimed to be prone to changes under language contact. Analyzing spoken and written narratives produced by heritage speakers (HSs) of Russian residing in the US and Germany, we scrutinize HSs’ choice of OV/VO orders in comparison to the monolingual speakers from Russia. According to the results of the binomial generalized linear mixed-effects model, the OV/VO choice in heritage Russian was best predicted by the clause type and object realization. Specifically, the likelihood of producing the OV order was lower in the embedded clauses than in the main clauses among all speaker groups. Furthermore, all three speaker groups preferred the OV order with the pronominal object, while the preference shifted towards the VO order when the object was realized by a noun. Finally, both HS groups behaved similarly to the monolingual speakers in their choice of OV/VO orders. The results of the study do not provide any clear evidence for cross-linguistic influence from the majority languages and suggest that the word order choice of heritage and monolingual speakers depends on multiple factors, such as clause type and object realization.