Search

This study considers the use of adnominal restrictive relative clauses based on data from an acceptability rating task. We asked non-migrant native speakers (n = 24) of English and migrant native speakers (n = 28) of English to judge three different types of relative clauses. Results indicated that these speakers rate the relative markers that and zero more positively in line with the current situation in Present-day English.1 The similar behaviour in the rating shows that major driving forces of language variation such as colloquialisation and Americanisation are stronger than other forces such as language contact. The similarities in the usage of relativisation strategies observed between contemporary Englishes and language competences of migrant and non-migrant speakers support the emergence of a new variety of English similar to other documented varieties that emerged in comparable contexts.2 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated three key issues in heritage language (HL) research. Previous research shows HL speakers have an advantage on oral production tasks compared to L2 speakers who instead perform better on written tasks. Furthermore, both L2 and HL speakers are claimed to have a yes-bias towards retaining ungrammaticality in GJTs. Finally, the morphological domain has been shown to be as problematic for HL as L2 speakers but research in lesser-known languages is needed. Adult L1, L2, and HL speakers of Italian were compared on an oral priming task and timed GJT. Accuracy and response times were elicited from the latter test. The forms investigated were object and si-passive pronouns which lack corresponding forms in Swedish, the dominant language of the bilingual groups. Mixed effect regression was modelled to accuracy on the priming and GJT and response time data from the GJT. In contrast, a d-prime analysis was used to measure the degree of sensitivity to grammaticality and bias towards correct and incorrect answers in the GJT. Overall, the two bilingual groups performed quite similarly across the measures tested. All three groups show high sensitivity to grammaticality and a very similar bias for yes-answers on both grammatical and ungrammatical items. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

This paper reports the developmental stages of the acquisition of estar in stage-level predicate constructions in the L2 Spanish grammar of native speakers of French and Portuguese. Copular verbs exist in the L1s of both learner groups; however, only in Portuguese is there an aspectual contrast, with copula selection conditions that partially differ from those of ser and estar in Spanish. The study used data extracted from the Corpus de Aprendices de Español (CAES), made up of written texts produced by L2 Spanish learners from CEFR A1 to C1 levels. We attempt to analyse whether, and to what degree, these L2 learners are sensitive to estar copula restrictions in adjective constructions. Our analysis of the written production of 143 L1 French speakers and 361 L1 Portuguese speakers showed differing acquisitional patterns depending on the L1. We consider that the estar overextension, found in the learners' productions, is related to the process of developing the ability to identify the specific features that distinguish the use of copular verbs in the interlanguage of our learners. Our findings, thus, provide a more fine-grained description of the semantic representation and access of interpretable features in L2 Spanish with special relevance to current hypotheses on Second Language Acquisition such as the Feature Reassembly Hypothesis (Lardiere 2009). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to build bridges between different varieties of English. It reports the findings of two independent studies on the expression of perfect meaning in varieties of English world-wide. The first is a corpus-based, comparative study of native English vs institutionalised L2 varieties of English. Study 2 is a grammaticality judgement task involving first-generation immigrant speakers of English living in Mallorca in Spain. It is found that L2 speakers produce more variant forms for expressing present perfect meaning. L2 speakers are also similar to long-immersed immigrants in that both show greater variability in their choice of verb forms in recent past contexts. The paper insightfully combines research on World Englishes and on language attrition, arguing that language variation in both World Englishes and in long-immersed immigrant speakers can be analysed and interpreted as a possible sign of an emerging new variety. [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]

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]

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]

One of the most intriguing questions in the investigation of second-language acquisition concerns the role of learners' first language (L1). Comparing learners of different backgrounds (L1 German vs. L1 Romance languages), we aim to explore the acquisition of tense and aspect features in Spanish as a second language (L2). Findings show that the L1 indeed has an undeniable effect also visible in language interpretation. These results are discussed in the light of the Feature Reassembly Hypothesis and a version of the microparametric approach to cross-linguistic differences. Different from the participants with a Romance language who can rely on the great similarities between Spanish and their L1, the German learners show a learning strategy clearly based on their L1. In German, aspect is not expressed by verbal morphology but by lexical means such as adverbs. This fact leads to an adverb-based learning strategy that (different from what has been found among learners of L2 Spanish in previous studies) not only blurs an underlying competence but prevents the complete acquisition of the underlying features. Other external variables, such as immersion, do not change the outcome considerably. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: This study investigated the acquisition of Spanish Differential Object Marking (DOM) by bilingual and monolingual Spanish teenagers, evaluating to which extent their knowledge of DOM can be explained by different theories of acquisition. Design/Methodology/Approach: Two experiments with bilingual and monolingual Spanish teenagers (ages 10 to 15) were conducted. The experiments included an Elicited Production Completion Task, in which a space was to either be filled with an object marker or left blank, and a Context-Matching Acceptability Judgment Task. Data and Analysis: 54 subjects (44 bilinguals and 10 monolinguals) were tested. For both tasks, there were 6 conditions testing different syntactic–semantic features that trigger DOM (test items n = 42 in each task). The data were analysed with linear regressions and repeated measures analyses of variance. Findings/Conclusions: This study’s results show that bilingual teenagers do not demonstrate significant differences from age-matched monolinguals in their competence regarding the syntactic–semantic properties of DOM. Both groups are below ceiling in showing evidence of knowledge about all the syntactic–semantic features involved in DOM, indicating the possibility of a significant delay beyond childhood in their acquisition. Originality: There are few previous studies on the acquisition of DOM, and none which consider the full range of features and specific population considered here. Work by Montrul focuses on the animacy feature, while Guijarro-Fuentes considers the full range of features, but for adult L2 learners of Spanish. Significance/Implications: This study shows that the Interface Vulnerability Hypothesis, the Feature Reassembly Hypothesis, the Full Access/Full Transfer Hypothesis and the Interpretability Hypothesis have limitations in explaining its results. Instead, a feature-based approach is proposed in which the specification of features beyond animacy raises difficulties for the acquisition of DOM until late childhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and Objectives: This study explored the extent to which bilingual language exposure and practice might alter the way in which bilingual first-generation adult speakers use deictic demonstratives in their first language (Spanish) after immersion in a new language environment (Norwegian). Fully developed L1 systems are expected to be stable and less susceptible to change or restructuring than child systems. In addition, core domains of a language such as deictic demonstrative reference are hypothesized to be more robust. Design: Participants were tested with the Spanish version of the memory game. They completed an ethnolinguistic background questionnaire with questions targeting demographic data, experience with language, and daily routines in language use. Data and analyses: Demonstrative use was analysed using binomial multilevel modelling, allowing residual variance to be partitioned into a between-participant component and a within-participant component. Findings: Results demonstrate a shift in the demonstrative system of Spanish native speakers who have resided in Norway for a median of 6.5 years. This shift is reflected in extensive use of the semantically underspecified item ese at the expense of the form aquel. The latter form is less frequent and highly context-dependent in corpora of the modern language. It can be hypothesized that first-generation speakers are faster in converging on a simplified system of deictic reference than the native speaker group tested in Spain, but this development parallels tendencies observed in the monolingual variety of the language. This faster shift may well be influenced and catalysed by bilingual language practice. Originality: This article addresses a gap in research on deictic terms under conditions of language attrition. It documents a restructuring of the deictic system in first-generation speakers of Spanish residing in another country. The results suggest that marking peri-personal space is a core feature of deictic systems across languages, also preserved under deictic system shift. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper investigates the grammar systems of Chinese learners of Spanish as a second language with the aim of contributing to current debates within contemporary generative second language (L2) acquisition theory: the extent to which adult learners are (un)able to acquire new functional features that result in a L2 grammar that is mentally structured like the native target language has led to recent accounts such as the Interpretability Hypothesis (Hawkins & Hattori 2006; Tsimpli & Dimitrakopoulou 2007) excluding L2A of non-L1 uninterpretable features, and more recently the Feature Reassembly Hypothesis (Lardiere 2009) claiming that L2 readjustment is an arduous acquisition task for [+/-] interpretable features. In evaluating both hypotheses, this study further explores L2A of uninterpretable and interpretable features by examining the development of certain Spanish features within the DP (i.e., [uGender]; [uNumber] and an interpretable Focus/Contrast feature) by L2 Chinese learners. Results of our two experimental tasks show that parametrically different uninterpretable and interpretable features are not totally accessible to adult L2 learners, but that proficiency level and individual differences figure largely in the implementation of them, causing competence target deviant patterns. Contrary to the IH, our results thus show initial underspecification of the [+/-] interpretable features in IL grammars and a gradual process which would first mimic L1-consistency before becoming native-like. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares explicit instruction in second-language Spanish with a control treatment on a written picture description task and a timed auditory grammaticality judgment task. Participants came from two intact, third-year US high school classes, with one experiencing a week of communicative lessons on the Spanish clitic se (n = 15) and the other exposed to se only incidentally (n = 20). Explicit instruction consisted of grammar rules with sentence-level examples, followed by communicative tasks. Three test versions were administered within a split-bloc design as a pretest, immediate posttest, and delayed posttest 6 weeks after instruction. The instructed group increased targetlike uses of se on both tasks and sustained gains through the delayed posttest, although first-language transfer errors persisted. Meanwhile, overgeneralization errors centered on semantic and syntactic contexts similar to the instructional object, aligning with the unergative–unaccusative distinction among intransitive verbs. It is argued that the data provide evidence for the permeability of second-language implicit knowledge to explicit instruction and against total encapsulation as a model of the mind. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the author discusses various reports within the issue on topics including child bilingualism, the gender feature acquisition of two Basque-Spanish bilingual children, and second language (L2) acquisition.

In this article, we sought to investigate the acquisition of gender features by two Basque–Spanish bilingual children when compared to a Spanish monolingual child. Basque is a language that lacks gender features and nominal agreement, whereas Spanish classifies nouns into two classes, that is, masculine and feminine, and has determiner phrase internal agreement. The internal architecture of Basque and Spanish differ on two crucial ways: the presence or absence of agreement and the presence or absence of the syntactic projection ClassP. Hence, the acquisition of gender sheds some light on the internal architecture of the determiner phrase. The studies on gender acquisition by Spanish monolinguals or bilinguals of any combination are not numerous. For this reason, we provide a detailed description of gender development and a thorough analysis of gender errors by a monolingual Spanish child and two Basque–Spanish bilinguals. This study shows that the masculine is not the default gender, neither for the monolingual child analysed nor for bilinguals because both groups overgeneralize masculine as well as feminine. Moreover, none of the children exclusively use the masculine with all nouns at a first stage to converge to target grammar in a subsequent stage. Basque–Spanish bilinguals use masculine determiners with feminine nouns in the majority of contexts from the outset of language acquisition, whereas the monolingual child performs the opposite way. Interestingly, bilinguals require more time to acquire the intricacies of Spanish gender. In other words, they make gender errors even at advanced stages of development, when the monolingual Spanish child studied in this article presents a target-like gender performance. The analysed data show that Basque influences Spanish, resulting in language delay because of the internal architecture of the determiner phrase and to a minor extent by the surface overlap between Spanish and Basque. However, our interpretation is cautious because of the scarcity of such examples and the limited corpus available. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study investigates the extent to which advanced native-English L2 learners of Spanish come to acquire restrictions on bare plural preverbal subjects in L2 Spanish (e.g. gatos “cats” vs. definite plurals such as los gatos “the cats”). It tests L2 knowledge of available semantic readings of bare plurals and definite plurals in Spanish, where [+specific] and [+generic] interpretations are syntactically represented differently from English. Assuming L1 transfer, and in view of a potential subset/superset relationship of the two grammars, the learning task in this domain is not a straightforward one. Target acquisition requires both grammatical expansion and retraction; Spanish definite plural subjects require the addition of an L1-unavailable [+generic] reading, while a loss of an L1-available [+generic] reading for preverbal subject bare plurals is required. The results and analysis show that advanced L2 learners of Spanish (English L1) can circumvent a superficial subset/superset learnability problem by means of feature resetting in line with the Nominal Mapping Parameter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article focuses on the acquisition of copula verbs in Basque by Basque–Spanish bilinguals. Basque and Spanish have two copula verbs: izan and egon and ser and estar, respectively. Basque copulas are similar to their Spanish counterparts in terms of the grammatical contexts in which they are used. However, Basque and Spanish differ in one specific property, the progressive, which is built with izan in Basque. This article assumes the theoretical framework of Zagona for Basque because copula selection can be accounted for by this approach. The present study is the first one to address the issue of the acquisition of copula verbs by Basque–Spanish bilingual children in Basque; we analyze the language used in a storytelling task by 19 Basque-dominant bilinguals compared to that used by 19 child L2 Basque learners, in order to elucidate whether both groups of bilingual children use the copula in a target-like way in Basque. The study shows that no copula choice errors are produced by any of the participants with any predicates. The distribution of the predicates very much resembles the distribution of the predicates in previous studies for Spanish. Adhering to Zagona’s framework, the progressive was included in our study. In this respect, the progressive is used in a target-deviant manner, a finding that can be attributed to crosslinguistic influence. These results are ultimately attributed to children’s parallel knowledge of both interpretable and uninterpretable features, although uninterpretable features seem to be acquired a little earlier. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including bilingualism in children, language acquisition, and Basque language.

This paper provides a brief overview of some of the main issues concerning the acquisition of spatial language as a first or second language. We first consider spatial language variation and the challenges cross-linguistic language differences present for language learners. We then discuss similarities and differences in first and second language acquisition, concluding with a brief précis of the contributions in this special issue. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the acquisition of interpretable features in English second language (L2) learners of Spanish by investigating the personal preposition a in Spanish. The distribution of a in direct object NPs relates to the animacy/specificity of the NP, the animacy/agentivity of the subject, and the semantics of the predicate (Torrego, 1998; Zagona, 2002); i.e., personal a is conditioned by the interpretability of semantic features. Forty-nine English L2 learners of Spanish of three different proficiency levels, and 16 Spanish controls took part in a Completion Task and an Acceptability Judgement Task. These revealed that L2 learners of Spanish of all proficiency levels behaved differently from native speakers of Spanish. The L2 learners appear to have acquired some of the interpretable features (i.e., [±animate]), but show delays with others. Nonetheless, our data show partial convergence by advanced learners with the native speakers: some features are acquirable, while others may be less accessible and subject to developmental processes. In explaining our data we appeal to Lardiere's (2008, 2009) Feature Reassembly Hypothesis, but assess it critically and aim to develop it further by considering the complexity constraints in terms of the number of features involved and their configuration. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article focuses on the acquisition of verb placement (adverb placement, subject–verb inversion in yes/no questions, subject–verb inversion in direct, indirect and pseudo wh-questions) in L2 Spanish. Four different elicitation tasks (an identification task, a grammaticality judgment task, a preference grammaticality task and a production task) were used for data collection. The subjects were 41 English adult L2 learners of Spanish at different proficiency levels (beginners, low intermediate, intermediate and advanced) according to an independent placement test. In line with Lardiere’s (1998a, 1998b, 2000) and Prévost and White’s (2000) findings, evidence for developments in syntax which is independent of developments in morphology is found in support of the Missing Surface Inflection Hypothesis. Although L2 learners’ verb-placement is target like at the surface level, their knowledge of verb agreement is poor and limited. That is, L2 learners appear to have reset the verb movement parameter in Spanish (i.e., [+movement]), even though they fail to morphologically mark the verb for person and number correctly, showing lack of knowledge that the inflections in Spanish I are strong. These findings suggest that there is a strong dissociation between syntax and morphology (Lardiere, 2000), but they will also be discussed in the light of some current theories on the acquisition of new values for uninterpretable syntactical features (Hawkins & Hattori, 2006; Tsimpli & Dimitrakopoulou, 2007). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we examine the acquisition of interpretable features in English L2 learners of Spanish by investigating the personal preposition a in Spanish. The presence of a in direct object NPs relates to the animacy/specificity of the NP, the animacy/agentivity of the subject and the semantics of the predicate (Torrego, 1998; Zagona, 2002); that is, personal a is constrained by the interpretability of semantic features. Forty-nine English L2 learners of Spanish of different proficiency levels, and 16 Spanish controls participated in an Acceptability Judgement task. The results showed that L2 learners of Spanish across three proficiency levels behaved differently from native speakers of Spanish. The L2 learners seem to have attained some of the interpretable features (i.e., [±animate]) of the Spanish a-DP direct objects, but reveal delays with others. Nonetheless, our data illustrate partial convergence by advanced learners with the native speakers: some interpretable features are attainable, while others may be less accessible and subject to developmental processes. In analyzing our data we draw on Lardiere’s (2008, 2009) Feature Reassembly Hypothesis, but expanded and extended it in an attempt to critically evaluate and broaden it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In accord with the general program of researching factors relating to ultimate attainment and maturational constraints in adult language acquisition, this commentary highlights the importance of input differences in amount, type, and setting between naturalistic and classroom learners of an L2. It is suggested that these variables are often confounded with age factors. Herein, we wish to call attention to the possible deterministic role that the differences in the grammatical quality of classroom input have on development and on competence outcomes. Framing what we see as greater formal complexity of the learning task for classroom learners, we suggest that one might benefit from focusing less on difference and more on how classroom L2 learners, at least some of them, come to acquire all that they do despite crucial qualitative differences in their input. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

En este trabajo, investigamos los objetos directos nulos (argumentos y pronombres clíticos) en hablantes bilingües y monolingües en la frontera domínico-haitiana, mediante factores funcionales de la marcación diferencial de objetos (persona gramatical, ±animado, ±definido, ±específico). Las variables lingüísticas que más favorecen los objetos directos de tercera persona son la animacidad (que es inherente del referente mismo) y la especificidad, la cual viene determinada por el contexto lingüístico. Sin embargo, son aquellos referentes [+animados] [+específicos] [+definido] los que obligan la presencia del pronombre, mientras que los referentes [−animado] [−específicos] [−definidos] podrían realizarse con objetos directos nulos. En fin, durante la adquisición del acusativo de tercera persona, los adultos bilingües van desarrollando un sistema bipartito en cuanto a la ausencia o presencia de los pronombres de objeto directo: todos los objetos animados y con referencia anafórica específica son, por lo general, expresados de forma explícita a través de un pronombre clítico (generalmente lo) mientras que los demás podrían ser objetos directos, presentes o nulos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent second language (L2) acquisition research has proposed that purely syntactic features are easier to acquire and less vulnerable than ones involving the interfaces (Sorace, 2004; Serratrice et al. 2004). The present paper addresses this issue by investigating the acquisition of the Spanish personal preposition a in English L2 learners of Spanish. The distribution of a in direct object NPs relates to the specificity/definiteness of the NP, the animacy/agentivity of the subject, and verb semantics (Torrego 1998; Zagona 2002). 33 English L2 learners of Spanish of different proficiency levels, and 14 Spanish controls participated in an acceptability judgement task. The results showed significant differences between native speakers and L2 learners of all proficiency levels, who performed at chance, and support the claim that L2 learners have difficulties acquiring structures involving the syntax/semantics interface. However, the advanced learners showed sensitivity to the least complex condition providing evidence that interface phenomena may be acquirable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides a model for examining the second language (L2) acquisition of structures where the first language (L1) and L2 are similar, and where native speaker (NS) use varies. Research on the copula contrast in Spanish ( ser and estar mean “to be”) has shown that an assessment of learner choice cannot rely on an error analysis (Geeslin, 2001, 2003a; Geeslin & Guijarro-Fuentes, 2004). Obligatory contexts are difficult to identify because norms for copula use with adjectives are changing (Silva-Corvalán, 1994; Guijarro-Fuentes & Geeslin, in press) and NSs vary in their choices for a given context (Geeslin, 2003a). A more effective approach to assessing the acquisition of variable structures incorporates statistical models that identify features of the discourse that best predict copula choice for NSs and nonnative speakers (NNSs). Our research design, which incorporates semantic and discourse-pragmatic constraints, is the first to apply this approach to the acquisition of L2 Spanish by Portuguese-speaking learners. Because Portuguese also possesses copula choice, unlike previously researched L1s, our research also shows that the L2 and the L1 can be compared through analyses based on discourse features and the degree to which each predicts copula choice. Three participant groups were studied: NSs of Spanish ( N = 19), Portuguese-speaking NNSs of Spanish ( N = 11), and NSs of Portuguese ( N = 11). Thus, our definition of NS targets comes from two separate sociolinguistic studies in addition to our study of L2 data. The data elicited using a 28-item contextualized preference task were coded and analyzed according to seven discourse features present in each [copula + adjective] context. Results show that both groups of NSs share the same four predictors, differing only in the level of significance of each. In contrast, the Portuguese NNSs of Spanish are different from each of the other two groups. Our study connects work on the acquisition of Spanish by Portuguese learners to the growing body of research on L2 variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although ser and estar have been studied extensively (Luján 1981; Clements 1988; Leonetti 1994; Fernández Leborans 1999; Geeslin 2005), less is known about how the use of these copulas varies from one Spanish-speaking region to another. To date, sociolinguistic research has been conducted on Spanish in the United States (Kirschner and Stephens 1988; Silva-Corvalán 1994), in Mexico (Gutiérrez 1992), and in Venezuela (de Jonge 1993), showing that some features (i.e. adjective class, frame of reference and susceptibility to change) can affect copula choice in Spanish. The current study extends this body of research to the Spanish spoken in Galicia, where both Spanish and Galician co-exist. Our statistical analysis of a group of 56 intergenerational participants examines both social and linguistic variables as indicators of trends in language variation in relation to copula choice. Our findings support previous studies and contribute new knowledge of copula use in Galicia and of language change in a contact situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study seeks to test the general assumption made by recent studies on the acquisition of Spanish as a second language in relation to the morphological category Tense/Aspect that once non-native Spanish-speakers have overcome the initial developmental stages, both the distribution and interpretation of the Imperfect and Preterite are represented in their mental grammar according to the target language. A group of advanced non-native speakers of Spanish (whose mother tongue is English) was compared to a group of native speakers using two different tasks: a grammaticality judgement task which required all participants to judge items designed to measure the semantic-aspectual interpretation of the two verbal forms; and a morphological recognition task in which all participants had to recognize different verbal forms corresponding to both tenses. The results of both tasks suggest that there was no effect of persistent parametric differences that exist between Spanish and English. That is to say, although these parametric properties are not activated in their L1, they are available and present in the grammatical representation of Asp category (Aspect) in their L2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the knowledge of bilingual speakers of Catalan and Spanish regarding the production of object pronominal clitics (excluding non-reflexive third-person clitics), with a focus on: (i) their morphology, considering the variants that coexist for each form, and (ii) their syntactic placement (proclitic or enclitic) with respect to the verb. We present results from a study of thirty-nine simultaneous bilingual Catalan-Spanish speakers, residents of several geographic areas of Majorca, Spain, including the capital, Palma, and several villages. The speaker data came from a spontaneous oral production task carried out separately in each one of the two languages. We also analyze historical data from a diachronic corpus of Catalan to evaluate whether clitic properties of the Catalan produced by bilinguals constitute grammatical innovations in the language. The results indicate that bilingual speakers of Majorcan Catalan mostly acquire archaic forms for clitics (proclitics and enclitics) that also match the corresponding form of Majorcan Spanish clitics. We interpret these results as showing an effect of bilingualism with Spanish that has contributed to the preservation of archaic forms in the grammar of bilingual speakers of Catalan in Majorca because these forms partially match the ones found in Spanish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the acquisition of past tense uses by L2 Spanish advanced learners with closely related L1s (French, Portuguese), this study attempts to identify factors associated with variability, such as negative transfer or interface integration. We report data on the acquisition, by adult L1 French and Portuguese learners at B2 and C1 CEFR levels, of Spanish tense-aspect morphology: simple and compound past (SP, CP), imperfect (IMP), progressive (PROG), and pluperfect (PLP) forms, and from a control group of European Spanish speakers' use and interpretation of these tenses. Data were collected through a film oral retell and two written interpretation tasks; the second written task (a follow-up task), was performed only by L1 French speakers. In the oral task, comparing both L1 backgrounds, negative transfer is more pervasive for the Portuguese groups. However, in the interpretation tasks, the French speakers showed greater difficulties, linked not only to L1 transfer but also to nonprototypical tense/aspect associations and pragmatically based temporal reference. The data suggest, in relation to Lardiere's (2008, 2009) Feature Reassembly Hypothesis, that both feature reassembly and interface integration are sources of variability in the acquisition of L2 interpretable features that are also present in the L1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present the results of one written task testing the interpretation of mood choice in if-conditional constructions in L2 Spanish: a linguistic task of conditional utterances containing both regular and irregular indicative and subjunctive forms was completed by 48 L1 French and 40 L1 English speakers, and by an L1 Spanish control group (n = 35). Results show a similar pattern in the answers of both experimental groups despite the varying degree of similarity and disparity among the languages. We adopt a cognitive pragmatic perspective for the analysis of the results in connection with the various kinds of effects created by mood alternation in the constructions studied. Furthermore, in relation to current SLA debates (Lardiere 2008, 2009), our findings demonstrate that feature re-assembly in L2 Spanish is not trouble-free, as simple current feature accounts would advocate, even if those features exist in the learners' L1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent proposals argue that interface areas such as syntax/semantics and syntax/pragmatics are particularly difficult for adult learners, in comparison to purely syntactic phenomena (Sorace 2003, 2004). In contrast, other research shows that L2 learners are able to acquire target representations even when the interpretation is not readily available in the input (Borgonovo, Bruhn de Garavito and Prévost 2005, Dekydtspotter and Sprouse 2001). In this paper we add to the growing literature on the acquisition of interpretational properties by showing that adult L2 learners can acquire knowledge of the syntactic correlates of the semantic notion of specificity in constructions involving topicalisation and null objects in Spanish. The learners’ first language (L1) is Brazilian Portuguese, where specificity does not play the role in these constructions that it plays in Spanish. Results show that learners can go beyond their L1 with respect to the acquisition of interface phenomena, suggesting that native-like grammars are attainable in L2 acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Spatial demonstratives (this/that) play a crucial role when indicating object locations using language. However, the relationship between the use of these proximal and distal linguistic descriptors and the near (peri-personal) versus far (extra-personal) perceptual space distinction is a source of controversy [Kemmerer, D. (1999). “Near” and “far” in language and perception. Cognition 73, 35–63], and has been hitherto under investigated. Two experiments examined the influence of object distance from speaker, tool use (participants pointed at objects with their finger/arm or with a stick), and interaction with objects (whether or not participants placed objects themselves) on spatial demonstrative use (e.g. this/that red triangle) in English (this/that) and Spanish (este/ese/aquel). The results show that the use of demonstratives across two languages is affected by distance from speaker and by both tool use and interaction with objects. These results support the view that spatial demonstrative use corresponds with a basic distinction between near and far perceptual space. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]