This study examines the role of cross-linguistic transfer versus general processing strategy in two groups of heritage speakers (n = 28 per group) with the same heritage language – Russian – and typologically different dominant languages: English and Estonian. A group of homeland Russian speakers (n = 36) is tested to provide baseline comparison. Within the framework of the Competition model (MacWhinney, 2012), cross-linguistic transfer is defined as reliance on the processing cue prevalent in the heritage speaker’s dominant language (e.g. word order in English) for comprehension of heritage language. In accordance with the Isomorphic Mapping Hypothesis (O’Grady and Lee, 2005), the general processing strategy is defined in terms of isomorphism as a linear alignment between the order of the sentence constituents and the temporal sequence of events. Participants were asked to match pictures on the computer screen with auditorily presented sentences. Sentences included locative or instrumental constructions, in which two cues – word order (basic vs. inverted) and isomorphism mapping (isomorphic vs. nonisomorphic) – were fully crossed. The results revealed that (1) Russian native speakers are sensitive to isomorphism in sentence processing; (2) English-dominant heritage speakers experience dominant language transfer, as evidenced by their reliance primarily on the word order cue; (3) Estonian-dominant heritage speakers do not show significant effects of isomorphism or word order but experience significant processing costs in all conditions.

这项研究探讨了在具有相同传统语言（俄语）和类型上不同的主要语言：英语和爱沙尼亚语的两组传统语言使用者（每组n = 28）中跨语言迁移与一般处理策略的作用。一群国土俄语使用者（n= 36）经过测试以提供基线比较。在竞争模型（MacWhinney，2012）的框架内，跨语言迁移被定义为依赖于以传统语言为主的语言（例如英语中的词序）中普遍存在的处理提示来理解传统语言。根据同构映射假说（O'Grady和Lee，2005），一般的处理策略根据同构定义为句子组成的顺序和事件的时间顺序之间的线性对齐。要求参与者将计算机屏幕上的图片与听觉呈现的句子进行匹配。句子包括位置或工具结构，其中两个线索-单词顺序（基本与倒置）和同构映射（同构与非同构）完全交叉。结果表明：（1）俄语为母语的人对句子处理中的同构敏感；（2）以英语为主的传承语言者经历了主要的语言迁移，这一点主要由他们对单词顺序提示的依赖来证明；（3）以爱沙尼亚语为主的传统讲者并未表现出同构或字序的显着效果，但在所有情况下均经历了可观的处理成本。