Polish Null subjects: English influence on Heritage Polish in Toronto
Joanna Chociej
The present paper examines the variable use of null subject pronouns by Heritage Polish
speakers living in the Greater Toronto Area. In contrast to the Polish use pattern, subject
pronouns are close to categorically overt in English, the language of majority in the GTA. Thus,
aside from documenting the grammar of null subject use in Polish, this paper investigates the
extent to which the majority language can affect the grammar of a minority language.
On the basis of interview data from 15 Polish speakers, I examine the extent of English
influence in relation to social and ethnic orientation factors. Speakers were divided into three
groups: those who have lived in Poland their whole lives (homeland speakers); those who
immigrated to Canada as adults (first generation heritage speakers); and those who were born in
Canada or immigrated as very young children (second generation heritage speakers). The three
groups were compared with respect to their overall rate of null pronouns, as well as the
significant linguistic factors affecting their use.
Results show that overt subject pronouns are gaining frequency with each subsequent
immigrant generation; that is, speakers who have greater contact with English tend to use
typically English constructions more frequently. Heritage speakers also exhibit grammatical
reanalysis: when compared to the grammar of homeland speakers, certain linguistic factors
exhibit less significance while others exhibit more significance. Furthermore, while a speaker’s
null subject rate was not found to correlate to his/her ethnic orientation, correlations to other
social and attitudinal factors such as the degree of language mixing and the amount of linguistic
confidence were found.
Outside of contact linguistics, the analyses contained in this paper also give insight into the
grammar of null subject use. When compared to previous variationist studies, the Polish data
provide further evidence for the existence of universal patterns; most languages find subject
continuity and type of person+number agreement to be significant factors in predicting null
subject pronouns. Finally, as the first variationist study of Polish null subject use, this paper
disproves the popular assumption that overt subject pronouns in Polish are essentially emphatic.
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