spanish heritage speakers
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Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 200
Author(s):  
Nick Feroce ◽  
Ana de Prada Pérez ◽  
Lillian Kennedy

An increasing amount of research shows that bilinguals that engage in codeswitching (CS) may show different patterns of usage and sensitivity to particular linguistic structures depending on community norms. Additionally, proficiency may play a different role in sensitivity to code-switched utterances depending on speaker background, as well as the structure investigated. In this study, we aim to examine how bilinguals not exposed to CS in the community rate CS vs. unilingual sentences involving mood selection in Spanish. In an online acceptability judgment task (AJT), 20 Spanish L2ers rated sentences containing verbs in the indicative and subjunctive mood in restrictive relative clauses manipulated for the specificity of the antecedent in two separate sessions: a Spanish monolingual mode and a CS session. The L2ers did not show evidence of a CS effect and maintained a mood distinction according to the specificity of the antecedent both in unilingual and codeswitched sentences. These results are in contrast with the results previously reported for Spanish heritage speakers (HSs), where a CS effect is attested in the loss of preference for the subjunctive in nonspecific relative clauses in the CS vs. the monolingual Spanish condition. Additionally, this distinction is found at both lower and higher proficiency levels. The differences between these speakers and HSs are consistent with data from previous research on CS effects on phonology and Det–N switches. We argue that exposure to community norms is necessary for the acquisition of patterns not related exclusively to the grammaticality of switch junctures (I-language).


Author(s):  
Lourdes Martinez-Nieto ◽  
Maria Adelaida Restrepo

Abstract This study examines grammatical gender (GG) production in young Spanish heritage-speakers (HSs) and the potential effect of the children’s language use and their parents’ input. We compared four and eight-year-old HSs to same-age monolingual children on their gender production. We measured GG production in determiners and adjectives via an elicited production task. HSs’ parents reported children’s time in each language and also completed the elicitation task. Results show that HSs’ scored significantly lower than monolinguals in both grammatical structures in which the unmarked masculine default predominates. However, older HSs had higher accuracy than younger HSs. Input from parents is not correlated with HSs’ performance and neither Spanish use nor language proficiency predicts GG performance on HSs. For theories of language acquisition, it is important to consider that although the linguistic knowledge of the HSs may differ from that of monolinguals, their grammar is protracted rather than incomplete.


Author(s):  
Silvia Perez-Cortes

Abstract Verbal morphology is a particularly vulnerable domain in the grammars of Spanish heritage speakers (HSs). Among the most frequently studied phenomena is mood selection, identified as a pervasive locus of variability that affects the production of subjunctive more prominently. The present article explores this area of research by examining the effects of mood selection type on HSs’ subjunctive use. In contrast with previous studies, this investigation controls for propositional modality, focusing its analyses on instances of obligatory and variable subjunctive selection within deontic predicates. Results from a production task revealed that, despite the presence of between-group differences driven by participants’ levels of proficiency, type of selection did not significantly modulate their rates of subjunctive use. These findings challenge previous claims about the extent to which this factor affects Spanish HSs’ performance, and highlight the importance of considering propositional modality when examining the acquisition of mood.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
Michael Gradoville ◽  
Max Courval ◽  
Paige Elder ◽  
Rachel Hom ◽  
Finn Palamaro

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.


Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 108
Author(s):  
Kaylyn Blair ◽  
Sarah Lease

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.


2021 ◽  
pp. 026765832110176
Author(s):  
Julio César López Otero ◽  
Alejandro Cuza ◽  
Jian Jiao

The present study examines the production and intuition of Spanish clitics in clitic left dislocation (CLLD) structures among 26 Spanish heritage speakers (HSs) born and raised in Brazil. We tested clitic production and intuition in contexts in which Spanish clitics vary as a function of the semantic features of the object that they refer to. Results showed overextension of object clitics into contexts in which null objects were expected. Furthermore, we found higher levels of overextension among the HSs with lower patterns of heritage language use. Results are discussed along the lines of the model of heritage language acquisition and maintenance.


2021 ◽  
pp. 026765832110165
Author(s):  
Aída García-Tejada ◽  
Alejandro Cuza ◽  
Eduardo Gerardo Lustres Alonso

Previous studies in the acquisition of clitic se in Spanish have focused on the syntactic processes needed to perform detransitivization. However, current approaches on event structure reveal that se encodes aspectual information which is crucial for its acquisition. We examine the use, intuition and interpretation of the aspectual features constraining the clitic se in Spanish with physical change of state verbs and psychological verbs in declarative sentences, and in a set of why-questions. Twenty Spanish heritage speakers (HSs), 20 English-speaking L2 learners of Spanish, and 20 Spanish monolingual speakers participated in the study. Results showed a clear advantage among the HSs over the L2 learners across conditions. In general, the use of se with change of state verbs at advanced levels of proficiency seems to be harder to acquire than with psych verbs due to the aspectual morphological marking in L1 English. Interestingly, L2 learners and HSs were less sensitive to the [+inchoative] feature with psych verbs in why-questions. Results are also discussed in terms of the age of onset of bilingualism as an affecting factor on the acquisition of the aspectual values of inchoative se.


Languages ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 8
Author(s):  
Daniel Vergara ◽  
Gilda Socarrás

Processing research on Spanish gender agreement has focused on L2 learners’ and—to a lesser extent—heritage speakers’ sensitivity to gender agreement violations. This research has been mostly carried out in the written modality, which places heritage speakers at a disadvantage as they are more frequently exposed to Spanish auditorily. This study contributes to the understanding of the differences between heritage and L2 grammars by examining the processing of gender agreement in the auditory modality and its impact on comprehension. Twenty Spanish heritage speakers and 20 intermediate L2 learners listened to stimuli containing two nouns with gender mismatches in the main clause, and an adjective in the relative clause that only agreed in gender with one of the nouns. We measured noun-adjective agreement accuracy through participants’ responses to an auditory task. Our results show that heritage speakers are more accurate than L2 learners in the auditory processing of gender agreement information for comprehension. Additionally, heritage speakers’ accuracy is modulated by their Spanish language proficiency and age of onset. Participants also exhibit higher accuracies in cases in which the adjective agrees with the first noun. We argue that this is an ambiguity resolution strategy influenced by the experimental task.


Languages ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 68
Author(s):  
Ivo Boers ◽  
Bo Sterken ◽  
Brechje van Osch ◽  
M. Carmen Parafita Couto ◽  
Janet Grijzenhout ◽  
...  

This study examines heritage speakers of Spanish in The Netherlands regarding their production of gender in both their languages (Spanish and Dutch) as well as their gender assignment strategies in code-switched constructions. A director-matcher task was used to elicit unilingual and mixed speech from 21 participants (aged 8 to 52, mean = 17). The nominal domain consisting of a determiner, noun, and adjective was targeted in three modes: (i) Unilingual Spanish mode, (ii) unilingual Dutch mode, and (iii) code-switched mode in both directions (Dutch to Spanish and Spanish to Dutch). The production of gender in both monolingual modes was deviant from the respective monolingual norms, especially in Dutch, the dominant language of the society. In the code-switching mode, evidence was found for the gender default strategy (common in Dutch, masculine in Spanish), the analogical gender strategy (i.e., the preference to assign the gender of the translation equivalent) as well as two thus far unattested strategies involving a combination of a default gender and the use of a non-prototypical word order. External factors such as age of onset of bilingualism, amount of exposure and use of both languages had an effect on both gender accuracy in the monolingual modes and assignment strategies in the code-switching modes.


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