RESUMO
Definiteness has been argued to be difficult for language learners to acquire because the correct usage of definiteness requires the integration of external interfaces that involve linguistic and non-linguistic information. Previous offline studies with heritage speakers have constantly reported difficulties in the use of pragmatically appropriate definite forms. The current study aims to investigate the processing of definiteness in Turkish heritage speakers via a self-paced reading experiment and to compare heritage speakers' reading times and end-of-sentence acceptance percentage to monolingually-raised Turkish speakers. The results of the experiment indicate significant differences between the heritage and monolingually-raised Turkish speakers only in the end-of-sentence acceptance percentage data but not in the reading time data. This difference between the two groups suggests that Turkish heritage speakers perform differently from the monolingually-raised Turkish speakers only in indefinite-specific sentences when they have to use their metalinguistic knowledge. These results show that heritage speakers experience vulnerability/difficulty when they have to integrate external interfaces in indefinite-specific sentences but not in definite-specific sentences.
RESUMO
Previous studies have reported that null subject is not completely lost in heritage speakers, but there is an increase in the production and acceptance of overt subjects. Turkish is a pro-drop language and as a typical feature of pro-drop languages, it requires obligatory verb agreement marking for sentences with null subjects. However, Turkish subject-verb agreement marking is an example of optional agreement in which the 3rd person plural subject has optionality and can be used with singular verb forms under certain conditions. The current study investigates the reading times (RTs) of plural-marked and unmarked verbs in sentences with overt and null subjects during real time sentence processing in comparison to non-heritage speakers of Turkish via a self-paced reading experiment. Significant differences were observed between the heritage and non-heritage speakers of Turkish indicating both quantitative and qualitative real-time processing differences between the two groups. These differences suggest that Turkish heritage speakers need more time to integrate the information in real time processing.
RESUMO
Lack of effective medical treatment in infantile colic (IC) causes desperate mothers to apply for complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatments. Due to the possibility of benefits, the risks that may be incurred by these methods are often ignored by the parents. Therefore, information on the use of CAM methods in IC is needed. The aim of this study is to reveal the CAM experiences of mothers in IC treatment and the demographic characteristics that affect them. Mothers whose children were diagnosed as IC by a physician in the past were included in the study. The sociodemographic characteristics of the mothers, IC-diagnosed baby characteristics and CAM experiences were investigated face to face with a structured questionnaire. Sixty-six of 96 mothers who participated in the study used the CAM method. There was a statistically significant difference between the use of CAM and the education level of mothers (p < 0.05). We determined that 74% of mothers informed their doctors before starting treatments, and 82% do not believe if the CAM method could cause any harm that they would not notice by observing. The results showed that CAM methods are commonly used in IC treatment. According to these findings, mothers who use these methods believe that they are always harmless and have no side effects. For this reason, physicians should be careful about the adverse effects that may occur due to the CAM methods, which are widely used.
