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This project investigates the intonation of canonical (information-seeking) and non-canonical wh-in-situ echo questions conveying repetition and surprise in Northern Peninsular Spanish. Data from 14 female participants were collected via a contextualised elicitation task. The following correlates were examined: (i) the melodic curve of the wh-in-situ question, (ii) the nuclear peak (in Hz), (iii) the wh-tonal range (i.e. the difference between the lowest nuclear Low and the highest boundary High), and (iv) the nuclear contour. Results show that all wh-in-situ questions investigated display similar melodic curves and nuclear contours, but canonical questions have significantly lower nuclear peaks and wh-tonal ranges than non-canonical questions. Echo-repetition and echo-surprise questions also differ in nuclear peak and wh-tonal range. We propose a tentative analysis, whereby canonical in-situ questions have a final H% boundary tone, in contrast to non-canonical questions, which have an extra-High (upstepped) final boundary tone (¡H%).

espanolEste articulo estudia la adquisicion de las islas-q en el ingles como L2 hablado por nativos de espanol y en el espanol como L2 hablado por nativos de ingles, asi como la presencia de islas-q en espanol como L1. Un estudio de juicios de gramaticalidad con una escala Likert de 7 puntos proporciona evidencia de que los efectos de isla-q estan presentes tanto en espanol como L1 y L2, como en ingles L1 y L2. Los resultados del espanol como L1 cuestionan la vision tradicional sobre las islas-q en esta lengua. Asimismo tambien evidencian la importancia del dialogo entre la investigacion en L2 y los estudios de replica o evaluacion de datos. EnglishThis paper sheds light on the acquisition of wh-islands in L2 English spoken by native speakers of Spanish and L2 Spanish spoken by native speakers of English as well as on the distribution of wh-islands in L1 Spanish. A grammaticality judgment task with a 7-point Likert scale provides evidence that wh-island effects are present in L1 and L2 Spanish as well as L1 and L2 English. The L1 Spanish facts challenge the received view of wh-islands in this language, in keeping with recent developments which show that islands are more widely attested across languages than previously thought. These facts also highlight the dialogue between L2 research and replication studies thanks to the use of native control groups. euskaraArtikulu honek argitu nahi du nola jabetzen diren NZ-irlez ingelesa H2 gisa duten gaztelaniadun natiboak eta gaztelania H2 gisa duten ingelesdun natiboak. Artikuluak, halaber, NZ-irlak arakatzen ditu H1 gisako gaztelanian. 7 puntuko Likert eskalako gramatikaltasun juzkuei buruzko azterketa batek erakusten du NZ-irla efektuak sortzen direla bai H1 eta H2 gisako gaztelanian bai H1 eta H2 gisako ingelesean. Bestalde, H1 gisako gaztelanian lortutako emaitzek zalantzatan jartzen dituzte NZ-irlez tradizioz izan den ikuspegia eta bat egiten dute aspaldi honetako joerekin, zeinek agerian uzten duten lehenago uste zena baino hizkuntza gehiagotan daudela irla sintaktikoak.

This article reports on a study, with online measures, which investigated the processing of subject–verb (SV) agreement sentences by one group of heritage Spanish speakers (HSs), two groups of L2 learners of Spanish (L1 English) and one group of traditional Spanish native speakers. Experimental SV sentences manipulated person and number features with subjects and verbs in the present tense. Between-group statistical analyses indicated differential processing between the heritage and the L2 groups. The heritage group’s performance was more native-like than the L2 participants. Within-subject tests showed some similar patterns between heritage and L2 high-level processing, including delayed sensitivity to ungrammaticality after the verb region. We argue that the HSs were able to process basic grammar structures, just as traditional native speakers do. This suggests early bilingualism conferred an advantage to HSS when compared to L2 learners, in the control of basic agreement in Spanish.

In this paper I explore the two strategies (i.e. Inversion and Obligatory Gapping) allowed in Spanish to form comparative subdeletion constructions (cf. Knowles 1984, Price 1990 and Rivero 1981). I show that the two strategies are related and derive from the same source. That is, the NP containing the quantity term must undergo overt movement to check a strong focus feature in the Inversion Strategy. If the feature is not checked, the derivation can still be rescued by deleting the strong feature in PF. Once the strong feature is erased from the derivation, the resulting grammatical sentence constitutes an instance of the Obligatory Gapping Strategy.

This Special Issue of Languages includes nine selected and peer‐reviewed papers from the second meeting of Bilingualism in the Hispanic and Lusophone World (BHL), an international conference that took place at Florida State University, in Tallahassee, Florida, USA, in January 2017 [...]

This project investigates the intonational characteristics of wh-in situ questions (As in: ?Compraste que? ‘You bought what?) in Northern Peninsular Spanish. Although these questions reportedly occur with various pragmatic readings in several Spanish dialects (Uribe-Etxebarria 2002; Chernova 2013; Reglero and Ticio 2013), their intonation remains to be investigated. Data from 22 speakers from Northern Peninsular Spanish was collected in a reading and an elicitation task. Each task included 30 contextualized wh-in situ questions representing information-seeking, echo-repetition, and echo-surprise readings. Target sentences were interspersed among declaratives and yes–no questions. Preliminary results from the elicitation task are discussed for two female participants. Prevalent pitch contours are analyzed following Spanish ToBi conventions (Face and Prieto 2007). In addition, we report the global tonal range for each type of wh-in situ, as well as the tonal range average from the nuclear tone to the bounda...