Direct objects in child heritage speakers of Bosnian and Serbian in Norway: Morphosyntax, pragmatics, and language experience

Aims and objectives: This study examines the structural and morphological features of direct object realization through various types of direct objects—noun phrases (NPs), clitic pronouns, and null objects—in child heritage speakers (HSs) of Bosnian and Serbian in contact with Norwegian. This study also focuses on the role of language-internal factors, individual language experience variables, lexical proficiency, and cross-linguistic influence in shaping direct object usage. Methodology: Direct objects were elicited in the discourse settings where the referring element had been mentioned in a previous context, such as in response to the question, “What is Mia doing to the monkey?” We used the Q-BEx questionnaire to capture the individual language experience factors and MAIN to measure lexical proficiency. Data and analysis: Participants were 32 HSs of Bosnian and Serbian descent between the ages of 5.5 and 10.4 ( M = 93 months, SD = 14 months). The data analysis and visualizations were carried out in R (v4.2.2) and the packages MASS , nnet , mclogit , and ggplot2 . Findings: Child HSs of Bosnian and Serbian were sensitive to discourse-pragmatic (information structure) constraints, showing a preference for clitics followed by null objects and NPs. The individual language experience variables significantly affected the children’s object realization preferences. We argue against morphological deficiency despite the observed increase in the rate of null objects. The potential vulnerability of the feminine clitic je is likely due to the complex morphosyntactic patterns of Bosnian and Serbian. Originality: This study offers new evidence on object production in lesser-studied languages through an in-depth investigation of the complex relationship between syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and morphology, including case, gender, and number. Significance: This study underscores the importance of considering language-internal and external factors in the bilingual acquisition of object realization.