Null object realization in Mandarin by heritage speakers in Italy

This study investigates the realization of null objects in Mandarin Chinese by heritage speakers (HS) of Chinese residing in Italy. Focusing on the effects of animacy, task modality, and language transfer, the research explores how HS children handle argument omission in different contexts. Using a multi-method design - grammaticality judgment, bidirectional translation, and picture-based writing - the study compares the performance of HS and native speakers (NS) in producing and interpreting null arguments. Findings reveal a strong asymmetry: while null subjects are frequently used by HS speakers, null objects are largely avoided even when pragmatically licensed. receptive tasks show partial sensitivity to animacy and discourse recoverability, whereas productive tasks expose strong reliance on overt arguments, echoing Italian syntactic patterns. These results support the Interface Hypothesis and demonstrate that both typological interference and task design significantly impact heritage grammar. The study contributes to our understanding of how heritage speakers navigate the syntax-pragmatics interface under bilingual conditions. Key words: null object, Mandarin Chinese heritage speaker, language transfer