The acquisition of the morphosyntactic properties of Spanish by bilingual children in advanced stages
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.v5i1.107Keywords:
cross-linguistic influence, transfer, dominant language, simultaneous bilinguals, Spanish / English, tense and aspectAbstract
In this study we examine the development of morphosyntactical knowledge by Spanish-English and English-Spanish simultaneous bilinguals. In particular, we investigate the acquisition of verbal aspect and its semantic entailments of the Spanish preterite and
imperfect tenses from a generative point of view (de Miguel, 1992; Smith, 1997). As a departure point, we would not expect to find great differences between the bilingual and monolingual grammars if both grammars evolve in a similar way; if that is not the case, and given that both languages, English and Spanish, exhibit clear differences in relation to the categories tense and aspect (Smith, 1997), we would claim that the differences could be accounted for due to the fact that one of the languages is the dominant one and due to the transference of properties from one language to another. Overall the results show that subjects do not confuse preterite and imperfect forms in production; however, the bilingual participants have problems with the aspectual feature and its semantic entailment. In the light of these results we claim that the acquisition of these two aspects of functional categories is dissociated as has been observed in L2 grammars (Lardiere, 1998a, 1998b).
References
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Genesee, F. (1989). “Early bilingual development: one language or two?”. Journal of Child Language 16, 161-79.
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Genesee, F., E. Nicoladis y J. Paradis (1995). “Language differentiation in early bilingual development”. Journal of Child Language 22, 611-31.
Giorgi, A y F. Pianissi (1997). Tense and Aspect. Oxford University Press.
Hollebrandse, B. et al. (2001). “Italian sequence of Tense: Complementation or Imperfectivity?”. In A.H.-J. Do et al. (eds.), BUCLD 25 Proceedings. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press, 343-52.
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Li, P. y Y. Shirai, (2002). The Acquisition of Lexical and Grammatical Aspect. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Lipski, J. (1993). “Creoloid Phenomena in the Spanish of Transitional Bilinguals”. In A. Roca y J. Lipski (eds.), Spanish in the United States. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 155-82.
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Matsuo, A y S. van der Feest (2001). “What Dutch children know about Telicity and Tense”. In A.H.-J. Do et al. (eds.), BUCLD 25 Proceedings. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press, 469-79.
Meisel, J. (ed.) (1986). Adquisición del lenguaje- Aquisição da linguagem. Frankfurt: Klaus-Dieter Vervuert Verlag.
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Meisel, J. (2001). “The simultaneous acquisition of two first languages: Early differentiation and subsequent development grammars”. In J. Cenoz y F. Genesee (eds.), Trends in Bilingual Acquisition. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 11-41.
Montrul, S. (2002a). “Competence and Performance Differences between Monolinguals and 2nd Generation Bilinguals in the Tense/Aspect Domain”. In J. Lee, K. Geeslin y J. Clements (eds.), Structure, Meaning and Acquisition in Spanish: Papers from the 4th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press, 93-114.
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Montrul, S. (2002c). “Incomplete acquisition and attrition of Spanish tense/aspect distinctions in adult bilinguals”. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 5, 39-68.
Müller, N. (1998). “Transfer in Bilingual First Language Acquisition”. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 3, 151-71.
Müller, N. (2001). “Crosslinguistic influence in early child bilingualism: Italian/German”. In S. Foster-Cohen, T. Ruthenberg y M-L. Poschen (eds.), EUROSLA Yearbook 2. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 134-54.
Müller, N. y A. Hulk (2001). “Crosslinguistic influence in bilingual language acquisition: Italian and French as recipient languages”. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 4, 1-21.
Paradis, J. y F. Genesee (1996). “Syntactic acquisition in bilingual children: autonomous or interdependent?”. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 18, 1-15.
Rizzi, L. (1993/1994). “Some notes on linguistic theory and language development: The case of root infinitives”. Language Acquisition 3, 371-93.
Salaberry, R. (2000). The Development of Past Tense Morphology in L2 Spanish. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Silva-Corvalán, C. (1994). Language Contact and Change: Spanish in Los Angeles. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Smith, C. (1997). The parameter of aspect. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Taeschner, T. (1983). The sun is feminine: A study of language acquisition in bilingual children. Berlin: Springer.
Tracy, R. (1995). Child languages in contact: Bilingual language acquisition in early childhood. Habilitationsschrift, University of Tübingen.
Yip., V. y S. Matthews, (2000). “Syntactic Transfer in a Cantonese-English Bilingual Child”. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 3, 193-208.
Brown, R. (1973). A first language. Harvard: Harvard University Press.
Cenoz, J. y F. Genesee (eds.) (2001). Trends in Bilingual Acquisition. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Chomsky, N. (1986). Knowledge of Language, its nature, origin, and use. New York: Praeger.
Chomsky, N. (1995). The minimalist program. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Clashen, H. (1986). “Verb inflections in German child language: Acquisition of agreement markings and the functions they encode”. Linguistics 24, 79-121.
Comrie, B. (1986). Aspect. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Crain, S y R. Thornton (1998). Investigations in Universal Grammar. Cambridge, MA: MIT press.
de Miguel, E. (1992). El aspecto en la sintaxis del español: perfectividad e impersonalidad. Cantoblanco, Madrid: Ediciones de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.
Dulay, H. y M. Burt (1974). “Natural sequences in child second language acquisition”. Language Learning 23, 245-58.
Finger, I. (2001). “The aspect hypothesis: Early development of verb morphology in L2 English”. In A.H.-J. Do et al. (eds.), BUCLD 25 Proceedings. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press, 272-83.
Genesee, F. (1989). “Early bilingual development: one language or two?”. Journal of Child Language 16, 161-79.
Genesee, F. (2000). “Introduction: Syntactic aspects of bilingual children”. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 3, 167-72.
Genesee, F. (2003). “Rethinking bilingual acquisition”. In J.-M. Dewaele, L. Wei y A. Housen (eds.), Bilingualism: Basic Principles and Beyond. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 204-28.
Genesee, F., E. Nicoladis y J. Paradis (1995). “Language differentiation in early bilingual development”. Journal of Child Language 22, 611-31.
Giorgi, A y F. Pianissi (1997). Tense and Aspect. Oxford University Press.
Hollebrandse, B. et al. (2001). “Italian sequence of Tense: Complementation or Imperfectivity?”. In A.H.-J. Do et al. (eds.), BUCLD 25 Proceedings. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press, 343-52.
Hulk, A. (1997). “The acquisition of French object pronouns by a Dutch/French bilingual child”. In A. Sorace et al. (eds.), Language Acquisition: Knowledge, Representation and Processing. Proceedings of the GALA’97 Conference on Language Acquisition, University of Edinburgh, 521-26.
Jacobsen, T. (1986). “¿Aspecto antes que tiempo? Una mirada a la adquisición temprana del español”. In J. Meisel (ed.), Adquisición del lenguaje-Aquisição da linguagem. Frankfurt: Klaus-Dieter Vervuert Verlag, 97-114.
Lardiere, D. (1998a). “Case and Tense in the fossilized steady state”. Second Language Research 14, 1-26.
Lardiere, D. (1998b). “Dissociating syntax from morphology in a divergent end-state grammar”. Second Language Research 14, 359-75.
Li, P. y Y. Shirai, (2002). The Acquisition of Lexical and Grammatical Aspect. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Lipski, J. (1993). “Creoloid Phenomena in the Spanish of Transitional Bilinguals”. In A. Roca y J. Lipski (eds.), Spanish in the United States. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 155-82.
Martínez-Baztán, A. (1994). “Análisis transversal del uso de los tiempos indefinido/imperfecto por estudiantes holandeses de español L2”. In P.J. Slagter (ed.), Aproximaciones a cuestiones de adquisición y aprendizaje del español como lengua extranjera o lengua segunda. Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, 31-48.
Matsuo, A y S. van der Feest (2001). “What Dutch children know about Telicity and Tense”. In A.H.-J. Do et al. (eds.), BUCLD 25 Proceedings. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press, 469-79.
Meisel, J. (ed.) (1986). Adquisición del lenguaje- Aquisição da linguagem. Frankfurt: Klaus-Dieter Vervuert Verlag.
Meisel, J. (ed.) (1994). Bilingual First Language Acquisition: German and French. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Meisel, J. (2001). “The simultaneous acquisition of two first languages: Early differentiation and subsequent development grammars”. In J. Cenoz y F. Genesee (eds.), Trends in Bilingual Acquisition. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 11-41.
Montrul, S. (2002a). “Competence and Performance Differences between Monolinguals and 2nd Generation Bilinguals in the Tense/Aspect Domain”. In J. Lee, K. Geeslin y J. Clements (eds.), Structure, Meaning and Acquisition in Spanish: Papers from the 4th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press, 93-114.
Montrul, S. (2002b). “Incomplete Form-Meaning Connections in Spanish Heritage Speakers”. Comunicación presentada en el congreso Form-Meaning Connections in SLA, Chicago, febrero del 2002, EE.UU.
Montrul, S. (2002c). “Incomplete acquisition and attrition of Spanish tense/aspect distinctions in adult bilinguals”. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 5, 39-68.
Müller, N. (1998). “Transfer in Bilingual First Language Acquisition”. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 3, 151-71.
Müller, N. (2001). “Crosslinguistic influence in early child bilingualism: Italian/German”. In S. Foster-Cohen, T. Ruthenberg y M-L. Poschen (eds.), EUROSLA Yearbook 2. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 134-54.
Müller, N. y A. Hulk (2001). “Crosslinguistic influence in bilingual language acquisition: Italian and French as recipient languages”. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 4, 1-21.
Paradis, J. y F. Genesee (1996). “Syntactic acquisition in bilingual children: autonomous or interdependent?”. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 18, 1-15.
Rizzi, L. (1993/1994). “Some notes on linguistic theory and language development: The case of root infinitives”. Language Acquisition 3, 371-93.
Salaberry, R. (2000). The Development of Past Tense Morphology in L2 Spanish. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Silva-Corvalán, C. (1994). Language Contact and Change: Spanish in Los Angeles. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Smith, C. (1997). The parameter of aspect. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Taeschner, T. (1983). The sun is feminine: A study of language acquisition in bilingual children. Berlin: Springer.
Tracy, R. (1995). Child languages in contact: Bilingual language acquisition in early childhood. Habilitationsschrift, University of Tübingen.
Yip., V. y S. Matthews, (2000). “Syntactic Transfer in a Cantonese-English Bilingual Child”. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 3, 193-208.
Published
2004-03-26
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Section
Articles
How to Cite
Guijarro-Fuentes, P., & Clibbens, J. (2004). The acquisition of the morphosyntactic properties of Spanish by bilingual children in advanced stages. Sociolinguistic Studies, 5(1), 107-128. https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.v5i1.107
