Gender Acquisition in Spanish

Gender Acquisition in Spanish
Author: Jessica Diebowski
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2021-04-06
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110703041

The comparative investigation of the acquisition of gender in Spanish by early and late bilinguals of different language combinations is highly debated and crucial as the phenomenon of gender involves grammatical features that differ in all three languages under investigation. Against this background, both early and late bilinguals face an arduous learning task which differs in complexity. Couched within a generative framework, the empirical study focuses on 257 participants with different levels of proficiency in Spanish ranging from low to advanced, and through a series of tests aims to discover which extra-linguistic and intra-linguistic factors act as triggers for non-native outcomes in adult heritage speakers and L2 learners. The observed morphological variability is argued not to stem from a representational (i.e. syntactic) deficit, but rather from a mapping problem in L2 learners and heritage speakers. Successful attainment in terms of gender is possible but dependent on the interplay between various extralinguistic and linguistic factors.

The Acquisition of Gender

The Acquisition of Gender
Author: Dalila Ayoun
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2022-01-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027258392

Gender as a morphosyntactic feature is arguably “an endlessly fascinating linguistic category” (Corbett 2014: 1). One may even say it is among “the most puzzling of the grammatical categories” (Corbett 1991: 1) that has raised probing questions from various theoretical and applied perspectives. Most languages display semantic and/or formal gender systems with various degrees of opacity and complexity, and even closely related languages present distinct differences, creating difficulties for second language learners. The first three chapters of this volume present critical reviews in three different areas – gender assignment in mixed noun phrases, subtle gentle biases and the gender acquisition in child and adult heritage speakers of Spanish – while the next six chapters present new empirical evidence in the acquisition of gender by bilingual children, adult L2/L3 learners and heritage speakers of various languages such as Italian, German, Dutch or Mandarin-Italian.

The Acquisition of Spanish

The Acquisition of Spanish
Author: Silvina Montrul
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 436
Release: 2004-01-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9789027252975

This is the first book on the acquisition of Spanish that provides a state-of-the-art comprehensive overview of Spanish morphosyntactic development in monolingual and bilingual situations. Its content is organized around key grammatical themes that form the empirical base of research in generative grammar: nominal and verbal inflectional morphology, subject and object pronouns, complex structures involving movement (topicalizations, questions, relative clauses), and aspects of verb meaning that have consequences for syntax. The book argues that Universal Grammar constrains all instances of language acquisition and that there is a fundamental continuity between monolingual, bilingual, child and adult early grammatical systems. While stressing their similarities with respect to linguistic representations and processes, the book also considers important differences between these three acquisition situations with respect to the outcome of acquisition. It is also shown that many linguistic properties of Spanish are acquired earlier than in English and other languages. This book is a must read for those interested in the acquisition of Spanish from different theoretical perspectives as well as those working on the acquisition of other languages in different contexts.

Second Language Acquisition

Second Language Acquisition
Author: Roumyana Slabakova
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 506
Release: 2016
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 0199687269

This textbook approaches second language acquisition from the perspective of generative linguistics. Roumyana Slabakova reviews and discusses paradigms and findings from the last thirty years of research in the field, focussing in particular on how the second or additional language is represented in the mind and how it is used in communication. The adoption and analysis of a specific model of acquisition, the Bottleneck Hypothesis, provides a unifying perspective.The book assumes some non-technical knowledge of linguistics, but important concepts are clearly introduced and defined throughout, making it a valuable resource not only for undergraduate andgraduate students of linguistics, but also for researchers in cognitive science and language teachers.

Chicano English in Context

Chicano English in Context
Author: C. Fought
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2002-11-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0230510019

Chicano English in Context is the first modern, comprehensive study of Chicano English, a variety spoken by millions of Latinos in the U.S. It is also one of the first studies of ongoing sound change within an ethnic minority community. It briefly describes the phonology, syntax and semantics of this variety, and explores its crucial role in the construction of ethnic identity among young Latinos and Latinas. It also corrects misconceptions in how the general public views Chicano English.