The Emergence of Nominal Expressions in Spanish-English Early Bilinguals

The Emergence of Nominal Expressions in Spanish-English Early Bilinguals
Author: Emma Ticio Quesada
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2018-12-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027263221

This monograph examines the first syntactic unit in child language by presenting a longitudinal multiple-case study that focuses on the inner structure of nominal expressions in bilingual or monolingual child Spanish. This compilation of case studies offers the first insight on some of the properties of nominal expressions in bilingual or monolingual child Spanish and test some of the current theoretical proposals to analyze the main syntactic properties and operations within the nominal phrase. The findings of the study suggest new directions to address some core questions about monolingual and bilingual language acquisition taking as a point of departure the notion of economy, prevalent in the most recent theoretical discussion. Given the combination of empirical and theoretical discussions, this monograph will be appealing to a broad range of researchers in syntax and language acquisition.

The Next Phase in Heritage Language Studies: Methodological Considerations and Advancements

The Next Phase in Heritage Language Studies: Methodological Considerations and Advancements
Author: Fatih Bayram
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Total Pages: 376
Release: 2024-03-27
Genre: Science
ISBN: 2832546935

Over the past three decades studies investigating heritage speaker (HS) linguistic competencies have shown, time and again that, despite being L1 or 2L1 native speakers of their home language(s), HS outcomes display variation across a wide spectrum of differences as compared to each other, other types of bilinguals as well as their monolingual peers. Studies have traditionally used—mostly behavioral—methodologies rooted in adjacent established fields (e.g., L1 acquisition, adult L2 acquisition) offering, in addition to documenting and describing HS performance, important insights for linguistic theory and challenges related to (home/minority) language maintenance, contact, policy and more. A birds-eye view makes it clear that the methodologies one uses to tap into HSs’ linguistic knowledge areas, if not more, are important than the phenomena under investigation, especially in light of how their unique experiences with their heritage and other languages are present across a continuum.

Multifaceted Multilingualism

Multifaceted Multilingualism
Author: Kleanthes K. Grohmann
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 446
Release: 2024-04-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 902724703X

This volume collects research on language, cognition, and communication in multilingualism. Apart from theoretical concerns including grammatical description, language-specific analyses, and modeling of multilingualism, different fields of study and research interests center around three core themes: The Early Years (aspects of language acquisition and development, including vernaculars or minority languages, reading, writing, and cognition, and multilingual extensions), Issues in Everyday Life (the role of multilingualism in and for speech–language–communication difficulties, including diagnosis, provisions of services, and later language breakdown), and From the Past to the Future (aspects of multilingualism beyond acquisition, education, or pathology, with a focus on heritage languages and translanguaging). Specialists from each of these areas introduce state-of-the-art research, novel experimental studies, and/or quantitative as well as qualitative data bearing on ‘multifaceted multilingualism’. There is a broad spectrum for take-home messages, ranging from new theoretical analyses or approaches to assess multilingual speakers all the way to recommendations for policy-makers.

The Acquisition of Spanish

The Acquisition of Spanish
Author: Silvina A. Montrul
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 429
Release: 2004-12-23
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027294909

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.

The Bilingual Child

The Bilingual Child
Author: Virginia Yip
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 291
Release: 2007-08-27
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1139473824

How does a child become bilingual? The answer to this intriguing question remains largely a mystery, not least because it has been far less extensively researched than the process of mastering a first language. Drawing on new studies of children exposed to two languages from birth (English and Cantonese), this book demonstrates how childhood bilingualism develops naturally in response to the two languages in the children's environment. While each bilingual child's profile is unique, the children studied are shown to develop quite differently from monolingual children. The authors demonstrate significant interactions between the children's developing grammars, as well as the important role played by language dominance in their bilingual development. Based on original research and using findings from the largest available multimedia bilingual corpus, the book will be welcomed by students and scholars working in child language acquisition, bilingualism and language contact.

Foundations of Bilingual Memory

Foundations of Bilingual Memory
Author: Roberto R. Heredia
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 301
Release: 2013-11-22
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1461492181

Foundations of Bilingual Memory provides a valuable update to the field of bilingual memory and offers a new psychological perspective on how the bilingual mind encodes, stores, and retrieves information. This volume emphasizes theoretical issues, such as classic memory approaches, Compound-Coordinate Bilingualism, Bilingual Dual Coding Theory, and Working Memory, about which relatively little has been written in the bilingual domain. Also covered are: • The neuropsychology of bilingual memory • Applied issues (such as false memories and bilingualism, emotion and memory) • Empirical findings in support of the uniqueness of the different memory systems of the bilingual individual • Connectionist models of bilingualism The volume represents the first book of its kind, in stressing a memory perspective with regards to bilingual speakers. It can serve as an advanced text for both undergraduate and graduate level students and it will be of great interest to the growing number of bilingual teachers and university classes interested in understanding the bilingual mind, as well as in preparing teachers to work with the bilingual individual.

The Acquisition of Spanish in Understudied Language Pairings

The Acquisition of Spanish in Understudied Language Pairings
Author: Tiffany Judy
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2015-02-18
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027269084

By examining the acquisition of Spanish in combination with languages other than English (Arabic, Basque, Catalan, Chinese, Dutch, Farsi, French, German, Nahuatl, Quechua, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish), this volume advances novel data pertinent to the field’s understanding of acquisition of Spanish in the XXI century. Its crosslinguistic nature invites us to reconsider major theoretical questions such as the role of L1 transfer, linguistic typology, and onset of acquisition from a fresh perspective, and to question the validity of the traditional parameter (re)setting perspective taken in SLA. Additionally, this volume underscores the necessity of providing accurate descriptions of the language pairings investigated, emphasizing the interconnection between linguistic and SLA theory, and pushing us to a more atomic view of the system in which features and feature bundles mapped onto lexical items comprise the skeleton of language. This volume is of great relevance for researchers and students of SLA alike.

The Routledge Handbook of Spanish as a Heritage Language

The Routledge Handbook of Spanish as a Heritage Language
Author: Kim Potowski
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 607
Release: 2018-05-11
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 1317563069

The Routledge Handbook of Spanish as a Heritage Language brings together contributions from leading linguists, educators and Latino Studies scholars involved in teaching and working with Spanish heritage language speakers. This state-of-the-art overview covers a range of topics within five broad areas: Spanish in U.S. public life, Spanish heritage language use and systems, educational contexts, Latino studies perspectives and Spanish outside the U.S. The Routledge Handbook of Spanish as a Heritage Language addresses for the first time the linguistic, educational and social aspects of heritage Spanish speakers in one volume making it an indispensable reference for anyone working with Spanish as a heritage language.

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.

Language Dominance in Bilinguals

Language Dominance in Bilinguals
Author: Jeanine Treffers-Daller
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 315
Release: 2016
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1107044499

With contributions from an international team of leading experts, this volume offers new ways to explore and measure language dominance.