scholarly journals An Examination of Social, Phonetic, and Lexical Variables on the Lenition of Intervocalic Voiced Stops by Spanish Heritage Speakers

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 108
Author(s):  
Kaylyn Blair ◽  
Sarah Lease
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
Word List ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Linear Mixed Effects ◽  
Current Contact ◽  
Language Research ◽  
The Us ◽  
Contact Hours ◽  
Heritage Speakers Of Spanish ◽  
Spanish Heritage Speakers

The lenition of Spanish intervocalic voiced stops, commonly grouped as /bdg/, has increasingly been examined within Spanish as a Heritage Language research. This study seeks to identify social, phonetic, and lexical factors that predict the degree of lenition of /bdg/ among heritage speakers of Spanish. We analyzed 850 intervocalic productions of /bdg/ by 20 adult Spanish heritage speakers of various generations in an oral word list production task. Using spectrographic analyses, productions were categorized as full approximant, tense approximant, and occlusive. Results from linear mixed-effects models indicated that the phonetic context and the number of family generations residing in the US significantly predicted the degree of lenition of intervocalic voiced segments while age of acquisition of Spanish, current contact hours, and cognate status did not predict changes in the degree of lenition. Specifically, as the speaker’s number of family generations residing in the US increased, fewer segments were lenited. We conclude that variations in /bdg/ lenition among heritage speakers of Spanish reflect the changes in pronunciation of other segments of heritage speakers over generations.

How do Spanish heritage speakers in the US assign gender to English nouns in Spanish-English code-switching?

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Nofiya Denbaum ◽  
Ana de Prada Pérez
Keyword(s):  
Code Switching ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Gender Assignment ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
The Us ◽  
Mode Effect ◽  
Bilingual Speaker ◽  
Heritage Speakers Of Spanish ◽  
Spanish Heritage Speakers

Abstract Previous studies have observed different gender assignment strategies for English nouns in Spanish-English code-switching (CS). However, these studies have not investigated the role of noun gender canonicity of the Spanish equivalent, they have only examined participants in bilingual speaker mode, and most studies have not explored the role of bilingual language experience. The current study compares gender assignment by heritage speakers of Spanish in a monolingual speaker mode and a bilingual speaker mode, considering the role of noun gender canonicity and CS experience. Results revealed a language mode effect, where participants used significantly more masculine determiners with the same feminine nouns in the CS session than those in the Spanish monolingual session where they used a feminine determiner. Further evidence of a language mode effect was found in the effect of noun canonicity and bilingual language experience. Noun canonicity was only significant in the Spanish monolingual session, where participants used significantly more masculine determiners with non-canonical nouns. Bilingual language experience was only significant in the CS session, where regular codeswitchers used more masculine default determiners than infrequent codeswitchers and non-codeswitchers, while in Spanish-only, all these groups behaved similarly.

Causative verbs in the grammar of Spanish heritage speakers

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eve Zyzik
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Comparison Group ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Verb Classes ◽  
Heritage Speakers Of Spanish ◽  
Acceptance Rates ◽  
Intransitive Verbs ◽  
Spanish Heritage Speakers

This study examines argument structure overgeneralizations among heritage speakers of Spanish who exhibit varying degrees of proficiency in the heritage language. Two questions motivated the design of the study: (1) Do heritage speakers differ from native speakers in their acceptance of causative errors? And if so, (2) which classes of verbs are most susceptible to this overgeneralization? A sentence acceptability task targeting two verb classes (unaccusatives and unergatives) was administered to 58 heritage speakers and a comparison group (n = 22) of monolingually-raised native speakers of Spanish. The results confirm that heritage speakers, in contrast to native speakers, accept causative errors with a variety of intransitive verbs. Unaccusative verbs are more readily accepted in transitive frames than unergatives for all groups. Acceptance rates for individual verbs are a function of the particular verb’s compatibility with external causation as well as the possibility of being transitive in English.

scholarly journals The Late(r) Bird Gets the Verb? Effects of Age of Acquisition of English on Adult Heritage Speakers’ Knowledge of Subjunctive Mood in Spanish

Languages ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 69
Author(s):  
Giancaspro
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Age Of Acquisition ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Heritage Speaker ◽  
Subjunctive Mood ◽  
Language Research ◽  
The Us ◽  
Preference Task ◽  
Specific Factors

Many previous studies have found that adult heritage speakers exhibit significant variability in their production and comprehension of mood morphology in Spanish. Nonetheless, it remains unclear what specific factors predict heritage speakers’ likelihood of exhibiting such variability. The present study contributes to this question by testing the effect of both (a) age-of-acquisition of English and (b) Spanish proficiency on heritage speakers’ productive and receptive knowledge of mood morphology. Seventeen “early” heritage speakers (age of acquisition of English: 0 to 3.5 years), 20 “late” heritage speakers (age of acquisition of English: 4 to 6 years), and 18 later childhood immigrants (age of arrival in the US: 8 to 12 years) completed a Contextualized Elicited Production Task and a Mood Preference Task. Results of the two experiments suggest that the later childhood immigrants, despite “overusing” subjunctive in +Presupposition adjectival relative clauses, are significantly more likely than “early” and “late” heritage speakers to produce and prefer subjunctive mood in expected subjunctive contexts (with para que and in -Presupposition adjectival relative clauses). Within the heritage speaker groups, however, Spanish proficiency was a stronger predictor of subjunctive knowledge than age of acquisition of English, a finding with implications for both heritage language research and pedagogy.

Perceived Correctness of Nominal Gender (Dis)Agreement by Heritage Speakers of Spanish

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
Michael Gradoville ◽  
Max Courval ◽  
Paige Elder ◽  
Rachel Hom ◽  
Finn Palamaro
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
The Other ◽  
Gender Agreement ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Number Agreement ◽  
Test Items ◽  
Incorrect Stimulus ◽  
Heritage Speakers Of Spanish ◽  
Spanish Heritage Speakers

Abstract This study investigates how quantity of exposure to Spanish as well as early language acquisition affects the ability of adult Spanish heritage speakers to perceive prescriptively (in)correct nominal gender agreement in three-word sequences of a noun with two modifiers. Thirty-six adult speakers of Spanish as a heritage language listened to 116 different three-word sequences, half of which contained prescriptively incorrect gender or number agreement. Participants were asked to determine if the phrase sounded right. Half of the test items were experimental and addressed gender agreement, while the other half were distractors based on number agreement. Furthermore, participants filled out the Bilingual Language Profile (Birdsong et al., 2012) to assess their exposure to and comfort with Spanish. As in many previous studies, participants had more difficulty identifying a prescriptively incorrect stimulus as incorrect than correct stimuli as correct. There was a split between sequential and simultaneous bilinguals: while increased Spanish exposure improved sequential bilinguals’ ability to accurately identify both correct and incorrect stimuli, simultaneous bilinguals only saw gains in their ability to identify correct stimuli.

Subject and object expression in Spanish heritage speakers: A case of morphosyntactic convergence

2004 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
SILVINA MONTRUL
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Loss ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Clitic Doubling ◽  
Oral Production ◽  
Subject And Object ◽  
Heritage Speakers Of Spanish ◽  
Spanish Heritage Speakers

Many simultaneous bilinguals exhibit loss or incomplete acquisition of their heritage language under conditions of exposure and use of the majority language (Silva-Corvalán, 1994, 2003; Polinsky, 1997; Toribio, 2001; Montrul, 2002). Recent work within discourse-functional (Silva-Corvalán 1994) and generative perspectives (Sorace, 2000; Montrul; 2002; Tsimpli, Sorace, Heycock, Filaci and Bouba, 2003, in press) suggests that while syntax proper is impervious to language loss or attrition, syntax-related interfaces like lexical-semantics and discourse-pragmatics are not. This study investigates argument expression in adult simultaneous bilinguals who are heritage speakers of Spanish, because in this language subjects, direct, and indirect objects are regulated by syntactic, pragmatic and semantic factors. It was hypothesized that if language loss affects interface areas of competence more than the purely syntactic domains, then Spanish heritage speakers should display robust knowledge of null subjects as well as object clitics, but variable behavior in the pragmatic distribution of null vs. overt subjects, the a preposition with animate direct objects, and cases of semantically based dative clitic-doubling. Results of an oral production task administered to 24 intermediate and advanced heritage speakers and 20 monolinguals confirmed the hypotheses. With the erosion of pragmatic and semantic features, the grammars of the intermediate proficiency Spanish heritage speakers appear to display morphosyntactic convergence with English in the expression of subject and object arguments.

scholarly journals The Development of Subject Position in Dutch-Dominant Heritage Speakers of Spanish: From Age 9 to Adulthood

Languages ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 88
Author(s):  
van Osch ◽  
García González ◽  
Hulk ◽  
Sleeman ◽  
Aalberse
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Heritage Speakers Of Spanish ◽  
Language Literature

This exploratory study investigates the knowledge of word order in intransitive sentences by heritage speakers of Spanish of different age groups: 9-year-olds, 13-year-olds and adults. In doing so, we aim to fill a gap in the heritage language literature, which, to date, has mainly focused on adult heritage speakers and preschool bilingual children. The results from a judgment task reveal that child- and adolescent heritage speakers do not entirely resemble monolingual age-matched children in the acquisition of subjects in Spanish, nor do they assimilate adult heritage speakers. The data suggest that several different processes can occur simultaneously in the acquisition of word order in heritage speakers: monolingual-like acquisition, delayed acquisition, and attrition. An analysis of the influence of extraneous variables suggests that most of these effects are likely to be the consequence of quantitatively reduced input in the heritage language and increased input in the majority language.

scholarly journals ‘transformative’ potential of translanguaging and other heteroglossic educational practices

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 266-289
Author(s):  
M. Rafael Salaberry
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Practical Implementation ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Linguistic Resources ◽  
The Us ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Heritage Speakers Of Spanish

Over the last few decades, there has been an increased awareness about imprecise, inaccurate and, thus, unfair conceptualisations of language based on monoglossic views of language that delegitimise the linguistic repertoire of multilingual minorities as is the case of heritage speakers of Spanish in the US or speakers of Lingua Franca English worldwide. At the same time, there are theoretical and educational proposals that offer new conceptualisations of multilingualism focused on the concept of heteroglossia, which, in contrast with monoglossic views, focuses our attention on the fluid and full use of all linguistic resources available to language learners/users as they engage in the process of interacting with their interlocutors. In the present paper, I describe an important challenge that compromises the valuable agenda of heteroglossic approaches to develop multilingualism: the effect of listeners’ biases and reverse linguistic stereotyping. That is, educational programmes designed to counteract the negative effect of monoglossic approaches to second language learning in general cannot adopt a segregationist approach (neither in their theoretical design nor in their practical implementation). To place this challenge in context, I describe in detail the specific example of Spanish heritage second language learners at the tertiary level of education in the US setting and I also provide a broad outline of potential improvements in the curricular design of such programmes.

Preposition Stranding in Spanish as a Heritage Language

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Pascual y Cabo
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
Comparison Group ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Heritage Speaker ◽  
The Core ◽  
Preposition Stranding ◽  
Crosslinguistic Influence ◽  
Spanish Heritage Speakers ◽  
Timing Of Exposure

Previous research examining heritage speaker bilingualism has suggested that interfaceconditioned properties are likely to be affected by crosslinguistic influence (e.g., Montrul & Polinsky, 2011; White, 2011). It is not clear, however, whether the core syntax can also be affected to the same degree (e.g., Cuza, 2013; Depiante & Thompson, 2013). Departing from Cuza’s (2013) and Depiante and Thompson’s (2013) research, the present study seeks to determine the extent to which this is possible in the case of Spanish as a heritage language. With this goal in mind, a total of thirty-three Spanish heritage speakers (divided into sequential and simultaneous bilinguals) and a comparison group of eleven late Spanish-English bilinguals completed a battery of off-line tasks that examined knowledge and use of preposition stranding (i.e., a syntactic construction whereby the object of the preposition is fronted while the preposition itself is left stranded), an understudied core syntactic phenomenon that is licit in English but precluded in Spanish. Overall findings reveal that the sequential heritage speakers pattern with participants from the control group. The simultaneous heritage speakers, on the other hand, seem to have a grammar that is not so restricting as they accept and produce ungrammatical cases of preposition stranding. Herein, we argue that these results do not obtain the way they do due to incomplete acquisition or L1 attrition but crucially because of the timing of exposure to the societal language. We propose that this property was completely acquired, although differently acquired due to the structural overlap observed between the two languages involved (e.g., Müller & Hulk, 2001), and most importantly, to the timing of acquisition of English (e.g., Putnam & Sánchez, 2013).

scholarly journals The Sound Pattern of Heritage Spanish: An Exploratory Study on the Effects of a Classroom Experience

Languages ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 72
Author(s):  
Rajiv Rao ◽  
Zuzanna Fuchs ◽  
Maria Polinsky ◽  
María Luisa Parra
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
Classroom Experience ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Sound System ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Voiceless Stop ◽  
Heritage Speakers Of Spanish

While heritage Spanish phonetics and phonology and classroom experiences have received increased attention in recent years, these areas have yet to converge. Furthermore, most research in these realms is cross-sectional, ignoring individual or group changes across time. We aim to connect research strands and fill gaps associated with the aforementioned areas by conducting an individual-level empirical analysis of narrative data produced by five female heritage speakers of Spanish at the beginning and end of a semester-long heritage language instruction class. We focus on voiced and voiceless stop consonants, vowel quality, mean pitch, pitch range, and speech rate. Our acoustic and statistical outputs of beginning versus end data reveal that each informant exhibits a change in between three and five of the six dependent variables, showing that exposure to a more formal register through a classroom experience over the course of a semester constitutes enough input to influence the heritage language sound system, even if the sound system is not an object of explicit instruction. We interpret the significant changes through the lenses of the development of formal speech and discursive strategies, phonological retuning, and speech style and pragmatic effects, while also acknowledging limitations to address in future related work.

Written Narrative by Spanish Heritage Language Speakers

2017 ◽  
pp. 70-93
Author(s):  
Verónica Sánchez Abchi ◽  
Audrey Bonvin ◽  
Amelia Lambelet ◽  
Carlos Pestana
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
Comparison Group ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Story Grammar ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Heritage Language Speakers ◽  
Spanish Heritage Speakers

This article aims to study narrative complexity in written texts produced by Spanish heritage speakers growing up in two linguistic regions of Switzerland. Texts produced in their heritage language by children living either in French- or German-speaking parts of Switzerland were analyzed and compared to texts written by Spanish speaking children growing up in a mostly monolingual context in Argentina. According to the literature, it was expected that children’s heritage language command and literacy abilities would mask their narrative competence in Spanish (i.e., that heritage speakers would show lower narrative complexity than their monolingual peers). The participants were 138 pupils aged between 9 and 12;5 (twelve years and five months), distributed in three groups: Spanish heritage language speakers living in German-speaking Switzerland (n=66), Spanish heritage language speakers living in French-speaking Switzerland (n=25), and a comparison Group made up of Spanish speakers growing up in a monolingual context (n=47). Heritage speakers’ parents also completed a questionnaire describing the children’s linguistic background. We did not find significant differences between groups in terms of story grammar components, suggesting that command of language and writing constraints do not affect narrative complexity development in heritage language speakers.

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