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This paper tackles the usefulness of comparing L2 learners against native speakers in empirical SLA studies focusing on grammatical aspect. Adapting the view that interlanguage grammars should be analysed in their own right instead of as a deficient form of the target, we show that expressing perspectivity (fulfilled by grammatical aspect markers) methodologically complicates the analyses of Grammaticality Judgment Tasks in aspect studies. For Spanish past tenses, we show that especially with items constructed as allegedly ungrammatical natives behave heterogeneously. This casts doubt on the question whether these data can be used as a baseline against which learners' data could be compared. By analysing the interlanguage separately (not only in comparison to the controls), our findings among German learners of L2 Spanish suggest the use of the forms depends essentially on temporal markers which can be related to both their L1 lacking grammatical aspect and the pedagogical input. Crucially, though the interlanguage does not match the target (i.e., past tenses do not necessarily correlate with aspectuality), the systems are not chaotic but follow well-defined rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the L2 acquisition of Spanish object drop by advanced learners whose L1s are English and Brazilian Portuguese, in order to assess effects on their knowledge of the interpretable and uninterpretable features conditioning the realization of object drop in their L2 Spanish. Object drop in Spanish is subject to semantic restrictions related to definiteness and specificity, as well as syntactic restrictions related to subjacency. Current debates about second language acquisition (SLA) have led to different hypotheses. On the one hand, the Interpretability Hypothesis/IH (Hawkins, Roger & Hajime Hattori. 2006. Interpretation of English multiple wh-questions by Japanese speakers: A missing uninterpretable feature account. Second Language Research 22. 269–301) claims that uninterpretable features will not be completely acquired. On the other hand, the Feature Reassembly Hypothesis/FRH (Hwang, Sun Hee & Donna Lardiere. 2013. Plural-marking in L2 Korean: A feature-based approach. Second Language Research 29. 57–86; Lardiere, Donna. 2009. Some thoughts on the contrastive analysis of features in second language acquisition. Second Language Research 25. 173–227) does not distinguish between interpretable and uninterpretable features for the purposes of SLA, arguing that the difficulty of the acquisition task hinges on the required amount of feature reassembly from the L1 to the L2 lexicon. Finally, the Full Transfer/Full Access (FT/FA) (Schwartz, Bonnie & Rex Sprouse. 1996. L2 cognitive states and the Full Transfer/Full Access model. Second Language Research 12. 40–72; Schwartz, Bonnie & Rex Sprouse. 2000. When syntactic theories evolve: Consequences for L2 acquisition research. In John Archibald (ed.), Second language acquisition and linguistic theory, 156–186. Malden, MA: Blackwell; White, Lydia. 2003. Second language acquisition and universal grammar. New York: Cambridge University Press) hypothesis treats SLA as equivalent to first-language acquisition, in terms of the potential for ultimate attainment. Both the FT/FA and the FRH are in principle compatible with full attainment in L2 acquisition. To assess these hypotheses, this study tests the L2 acquisition of the semantic and syntactic restrictions on Spanish object drop by learners whose L1 either lacks widespread object drop (English), or has regular object drop but realizes it differently from Spanish (Brazilian Portuguese). The Full Transfer/Full Access hypothesis seems to best explain the results of the two experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we address Relevance-theoretical (RT) postulates with clear potential for contributing to the substantiation of the notion of interface in second language acquisition (SLA) processes. Whether the interface is considered the locus of contact between the structural linguistic properties and syntactic operations, on one hand, and the interpretive mechanisms of the conceptual-intentional system, on the other; or understood as points of interaction among cognitive modules, interfaces are fundamental to interpreting grammatical structures that require integrating discourse-contextual information. Assuming the RT conceptual-procedural meaning distinction is approximately correlated with that which exists between lexical and functional categories, it will be shown that recent research into SLA revolves around the problem of how procedural units are acquired. Certain functional categories, expressing interpretable features, have been analysed as encoding identical procedural indications across different languages. Thus, one challenge that L2 learners face is identifying diverse interface effects, derivable from a single procedure, across languages. To illustrate this point we discuss a recent analysis of phenomena involving tense and aspect acquisition applying RT principles to empirical findings. Finally, some new directions will be suggested for further theorizing in SLA research on inherent characteristics of utterance interpretation in an L2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demonstratives are cross-linguistically widespread expressions. The use of demonstratives is flexible due to their semantic elasticity, which allows them to describe more or less extensive regions or referents in a communicative scenario. The constant remapping between demonstratives and referents might lead to a restructuring of the deictic system itself in accordance with the parameters affecting its use. To that end, we analyzed the structural changes affecting demonstratives in Majorcan Catalan by analysing whether speakers use three or two terms (aquest/aqueix/aquell vs. aquest/aquell) to convey spatial information. We also assessed whether any change in the adnominal/pronominal forms mirrored locative adverbs reduction. We elicited the production of demonstratives in 36 simultaneous Majorcan/Spanish bilinguals via a psycholinguistic experiment and we found two main results. First, simultaneous bilingual speakers do not extensively use the term aqueix to convey information related to physical distance. Second, the pronominal/adnominal reduction from three- to two-terms differs from the adverbial reduction. In the first case, aqueix is dropping out of the system, while locative adverbs present a shift with substitution of açí for aquí. Overall, our results shed new light on how the Majorcan Catalan demonstrative system is structured and explain structural changes in terms of 'analogical levelling' in paradigmatic relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Special Issue brings together the current work of well-established and well-known researchers in the field of language acquisition from a formal approach across several languages and of bilingual acquisition (2L1 and adult simultaneous and successive bilinguals), focusing on the syntax, semantics and pragmatics of different linguistic phenomena. Specifically, the four papers that will encompass this Special Issue together with an afterword paper written by a leading researcher in the field, Itziar Laka, discuss two main issues for current linguistic theory, both related, in this discussion, to Spanish: on the one hand, how do data and phenomena from the acquisition of different Romance languages inform and shape generative linguistic theory? And, on the other, how does generative linguistic theory frame and constrain research on the acquisition of Romance languages? To that end, divergent bilingual populations are used in these studies, which present longitudinal or cross-sectional data using a diverse range of methodologies (more on this within the individual summaries). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rich morphology of Spanish, such as that of tense and verbal mood, encodes a range of features leading to diverse contextual effects on interpretation, some of which are examined in the light of original experimental data in the present study. Specifically, we analyse data on the interpretation of mood in concessive structures by upper-intermediate and advanced learners of L2 Spanish, with L1 French (N = 48) and L1 English (N = 40), and from an L1 European Spanish control group (N = 35). The results of the learner-group interpretation experiment led to a follow-on study enquiring into the understanding of mood alternation in concessive clauses by another group of L1 European Spanish speakers through a metalinguistic interpretation task. Learner group findings suggested a heavier reliance on lexical information and worldknowledge than on grammatical cues, while L1 speakers' data indicate a default association maintained between subjunctive and irrealis interpretations, leading to a greater measure of variability in describing presuppositional uses of this mood. The native speaker data may reflect challenges posed by representing and describing, using metalinguistic knowledge, structures whose interpretation requires the integration of linguistic, discourse and extralinguistic information. Findings are discussed in relation to current linguistic descriptions and potential contributions of our empirical data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we review current novel work across several languages and instances of bilingual acquisition (2L1 and child L2), whose focus is on the syntax and semantics of different linguistic phenomena with a range of naturalistic and experimental methodologies (e. g. grammaticality judgments, truth-value judgment task, semantics entailment experiments in on-line and off-line modalities and longitudinal data) to determine at which age one can say that the influence of one language over the other diminishes or disappears. Moreover, we discuss the central issue of what may trigger the end of the influence of one language over the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on consequences for linguistic theory of a set of experiments on the L2 acquisition of Spanish Differential Object Marking (DOM), with three experimental groups: a native control group, a group of L2 learners whose L1 is English, and a group of L2 learners whose L1 is Brazilian Portuguese (BP). The results of the experiments shed light on two questions of theoretical import: (a) how best to characterize the syntax of Spanish DOM, and (b) whether BP should be classified as a DOM language. We argue that our results support López's (2012, Indefinite objects: Scrambling, choice functions, and differential marking. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press) syntactic theory account of DOM over that of Torrego (1998, The dependencies of objects. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press), in particular due to the more fine-grained distinctions between non-specific objects made by López (2012) compared to Torrego (1998). We also argue that although BP is a DOM language (as suggested by Schwenter 2014, Two kinds of differential object marking in Portuguese and Spanish. In Patricia Amaral & Ana Maria Carvalho (eds.), Portuguese-Spanish interfaces: Diachrony, synchrony, and contact, 237–260. Amsterdam: John Benjamins), our BP subjects do not show a clear acquisitional advantage over English speakers with regard to Spanish DOM, due to independent reasons that include the morphological realization of DOM in Spanish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses data from a multiple-method study exploring intergenerational heritage language practices in Spanish-speaking families in Britain. The paper harnesses interdisciplinary perspectives (human geography, childhood studies and socio-linguistics) to explore families' accounts of their intergenerational language practices within the home specifically, due to the dearth of work in this area in Britain. There is an urgent need to examine the multiple intersections between language, home and identity, particularly from intergenerational and/or life course perspectives. Currently, little is known about the ways in which members of migrant families evaluate their heritage language practices socially and linguistically in the home in European contexts, or how their heritage language practices are informed by their identities (often multiple) in European migrant-receiving countries. Specifically, the paper explores: the comparative geographical patterns of Spanish in Britain, using data from Census 2011; how and why children's and parents' heritage language practices differ in the home space (and beyond); and the ways in which these practices are rooted in senses of identity and belonging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editors discuss various reports within the issue on topics including the acquisition of bilingual language, the contact languages in sociolinguistics and education and the history of language.