Recent approaches to heritage languages have sought to identify explanations for variability in heritage grammars. The present study explores variable patterns of Spanish differential object marking (DOM) in 40 heritage Spanish speakers (HSs) from the United States and 28 Spanish-dominant bilingual speakers (SDSs) from Mexico. Participants completed a picture description task including human, animal and inanimate direct objects. Both groups exhibited patterns of DOM following the Animacy Scale. However, HSs showed lower DOM rates and greater individual variability with human referents compared to SDSs, even when individual differences in language dominance were considered. Conversely, SDSs produced lower rates of DOM with inanimate objects than HSs. DOM use was constrained by verb-specific animacy biases across animacy conditions and speaker groups. These findings reveal that Spanish HSs maintain baseline-like variable patterns of DOM. Moreover, HSs may advance language change in predictable directions based on patterns of variation present in the baseline variety.

中文翻译：

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为了解释遗产品种的变异性：西班牙语成年传统使用者的差异对象标记的系统模式


最近的传统语言方法试图确定传统语法可变性的解释。本研究探讨了来自美国的 40 名传统西班牙语使用者 （HS） 和来自墨西哥的 28 名西班牙语为主的双语使用者 （SDS） 的西班牙语差异宾语标记 （DOM） 的可变模式。参与者完成了一项图片描述任务，包括人类、动物和无生命的直接物体。两组都表现出遵循 Animacy 量表的 DOM 模式。然而，与 SDS 相比，HSs 显示出较低的 DOM 率和更大的人类指涉个体变异性，即使考虑到语言优势的个体差异也是如此。相反，SDS 对无生命物体产生的 DOM 率低于 HS。DOM 的使用受到跨动词条件和说话人组的动词特异性有灵性偏差的限制。这些发现表明，西班牙 HSs 保持 DOM 的基线样可变模式。此外，HSs 可能会根据基线品种中存在的变异模式将语言变化推向可预测的方向。