Um período de estabilização no desenvolvimento da competência sintáctica de falantes bilingues

Abstract

The aim of the present paper is to examine if the return of second generation migrants to their homeland (or better: to their parents’ homeland), i.e. if the loss of regular input from one language leads to changes in their language competence. The spoken data of 32 participants who were raised bilingually in a German-speaking country (Germany or Switzerland) and who moved to Portugal later in life is presented. The goal of this study is to look for syntactic variation in their German that can be interpreted as attrition effects and to determine which linguistic features were affected by these attrition phenomena. The results are discussed in relation with extra-linguistic factors such as ‘age of return’, ‘amount of contact with L2 after return’ and ‘length of stay in Portugal’