This study investigates child heritage speakers’ Spanish direct objects. A task designed to elicit direct objects was completed in Spanish and English by 40 child heritage speakers of Spanish in the U.S., and in Spanish by 24 monolingual children in Mexico. Both participant groups varied their direct object forms, following the same ranking: clitics>lexical NPs>omission>doubling. Animate referents promoted clitics; inanimate referents promoted lexical NPs. Among the heritage speakers, more Spanish experience and Spanish lexical proficiency predicted more clitic use (less omission and lexical NP use). We also argue that the child heritage speakers’ production of strong pronouns, more lexical NPs, and masculine clitic lo with inanimate feminine referents suggest English influence. The study underscores the importance of examining structured variation, which revealed both similarities and differences between heritage and monolingual speakers.

中文翻译：

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结构化变异、语言体验和跨语言影响塑造了讲西班牙语的儿童的直接对象

本研究调查了儿童遗产使用者的西班牙语直接对象。美国的 40 名讲西班牙语的儿童使用西班牙语和英语完成了一项旨在引出直接对象的任务，墨西哥的 24 名单语儿童使用西班牙语完成了一项任务。两个参与者组都改变了他们的直接宾语形式，遵循相同的排名：clitics > lexical NPs > omission > doubling。动画参照物促进了评论；无生命的指称促进了词汇 NP。在传统演讲者中，更多的西班牙语经验和西班牙语词汇熟练程度预示着更多的 clitic 使用（更少的遗漏和词汇 NP 使用）。我们还认为，儿童遗产说话者产生强代词、更多的词汇 NP 和男性附庸罗与无生命的女性指称暗示英国的影响。该研究强调了检查结构化变异的重要性，它揭示了传统和单一语言使用者之间的异同。