scholarly journals An Exploratory Study of the Effect of Spanish Immersion Education on the Acquisition of Pronominal Subjects in Child Heritage Speakers

Languages ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Michele Goldin
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Immersion Education ◽  
English Dominant

Studies have found that aspects of grammar that lie at the syntax–pragmatics interface, such as the use of pronominal subjects in null-subject languages, are likely to undergo cross-linguistic influence in bilingual speakers. This study contributes to our understanding of the role of Spanish immersion academic instruction on the comprehension of null subjects in English-dominant, Spanish-heritage children living in the United States. Two groups of bilingual children aged 4 to 7 (those attending a Spanish immersion school and those not) completed an acceptability judgment task in both English and Spanish. English monolingual children and monolingually raised Spanish children of the same ages also completed the task in their respective languages. The findings revealed that children in the Spanish immersion school performed on par with their monolingual peers in Spanish, but accepted significantly more ungrammatical null subjects in English than the other groups. These results suggest that immersion schooling plays a role in extending the English null subject stage in bilingual children due to competing input and cross-linguistic influence.

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.

Null subjects

2019 ◽  
pp. 191-300
Author(s):  
Ian Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Null Subjects ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
Null Arguments ◽  
Null Pronouns ◽  
General Account ◽  
Article System ◽  
Historical Sketch

After a brief historical sketch of work on null subjects, and a summary of Barbosa’s proposals concerning the relation between partial and radical null subjects, the chapter presents a typology of null arguments which links their properties directly to the D-system, suggesting a cross-linguistic link between the nature of the null-subject system and the nature of the ‘article system’ in a given language. After a brief consideration of the semantics of null pronouns and the role of the Person feature in licensing null arguments, a general account of ‘licensing pro’ is put forward, which relies on the twin ideas that pro contains a variable and that all variables must be bound at the C–I interface. Finally, there is an updated and refined parameter hierarchy for φ‎-parameters. The question of the relation of variation in these features to the C–I interface and the morphophonological interface is also taken up.

Effects of age and education on variable but native heritage grammars: Theoretical and empirical implications for the Null Subject Parameter

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 443-467
Author(s):  
Katrin Schmitz ◽  
Anna-Lena Scherger
Keyword(s):  
Significant Variation ◽  
Language Change ◽  
External Factors ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
Null Subject Parameter ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Empirical Implications

AbstractIn this contribution, we investigate the impact of language-internal and language-external factors on the parametrized grammatical domain of (null) subjects in adult Italian heritage speakers (HS, n=16). Based on empirical evidence from correlation analyses comparing these speakers´ spontaneous speech to monolingual Italians (n=10), we determine the kind and extent of variation in monolingual and bilingual adult end-state grammars. We will show that there is indeed a significant variation in the null subject production of the HS related to the factors age and education which is, however, constrained to contexts of 1st grammatical person. This observation cannot be taken to represent incomplete acquisition but rather a discourse and possibly situation-related competent behaviour. We propose that end-state HS grammars are characterized by a full grammatical and pragmatic competence, combined with a larger variation of language-externally determined preferences than monolinguals show. This does not call the native end-state competence of HS into question but opens the door for potential changes in future bilingual generations. We further discuss the implications for language acquisition theory and language change in terms of stability.

scholarly journals REANALYSIS IN ADULT HERITAGE LANGUAGE

2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 305-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Polinsky
Keyword(s):  
Life Span ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Child Language ◽  
Narrative Structure ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
English Dominant

This study presents and analyzes the comprehension of relative clauses in child and adult speakers of Russian, comparing monolingual controls with Russian heritage speakers (HSs) who are English-dominant. Monolingual and bilingual children demonstrate full adultlike mastery of relative clauses. Adult HSs, however, are significantly different from the monolingual adult controls and from the child HS group. This divergent performance indicates that the adult heritage grammar is not a product of the fossilization of child language. Instead, it suggests that forms existing in the baseline undergo gradual attrition over the life span of a HS. This result is consistent with observations on narrative structure in child and adult HSs (Polinsky, 2008b). Evidence from word order facts suggests that relative clause reanalysis in adult HSs cannot be attributed to transfer from English.

The syntax and interpretation of embedded null subjects in Chinese, and their acquisition by English-speaking learners

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 191-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucy Xia Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Judgment Task ◽  
Minimalist Program ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The Government ◽  
Advanced Proficiency ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
Matrix Subject

This article reports an investigation of embedded null subjects in both L1 and L2 Chinese. Chinese null embedded subjects can refer either to a matrix subject or to a discourse entity. In the Government-Binding (GB) framework, these two possibilities resulted from the null subject being either pro or a variable. Neither pro nor a variable is compatible with the assumptions of the more recent Minimalist Program, however. This article proposes an alternative account for null embedded subjects in Chinese that is consistent with the Minimalist Program: deletion of the anaphor ziji and deletion of a topic under identity with appropriate antecedents. It then reports a study of knowledge of such deletion in the Chinese of L2 speakers. Although the existing literature has found that embedded null subjects are allowed by L2 learners of Chinese at early stages of development, no research has investigated whether they are interpreted in a target-like way by L2 speakers. A picture judgment task and a written interpretation task showed that English-speaking learners of high-intermediate proficiency in Chinese allow an embedded null subject to refer to the matrix subject, but not to a discourse entity. It is only at advanced proficiency that L2 speakers allow co-reference with both a matrix subject and a discourse entity. The implications of these results are discussed.

Online processing of subject pronouns in monolingual and heritage bilingual speakers of Mexican Spanish

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
GREGORY D. KEATING ◽  
JILL JEGERSKI ◽  
BILL VANPATTEN
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Mexican Spanish ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Subject Pronouns ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Online Processing ◽  
Overt Pronouns ◽  
English Dominant ◽  
Reading Study ◽  
Spanish Heritage Speakers

In this self-paced reading study, we first tested the cross-linguistic validity of the position of antecedent strategy proposed for anaphora resolution in Italian (Carminati, 2002) in a Latin American variety of Spanish. We then examined the application of this strategy by Spanish heritage speakers of the same dialect who were largely English dominant. Forty-five monolingual speakers of Mexican Spanish and 28 Spanish heritage speakers of Mexican descent read sentences in which null and overt subject pronouns were biased for and against expected antecedent biases. Our results suggest that Mexican monolinguals display distinct antecedent biases for null and overt pronouns. Furthermore, the Spanish heritage speakers, though not monolingual-like, did not violate discourse constraints on the resolution of overt pronouns, contra the findings of offline research (see Keating, VanPatten & Jegerski, 2011). We discuss the findings in terms of a processing-based account.

scholarly journals Early null and overt subjects in the Spanish of simultaneous English-Spanish bilinguals and Crosslinguistic Influence

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 350-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julio Villa-García ◽  
Imanol Suárez-Palma
Keyword(s):  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Parameter Setting ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
Crosslinguistic Influence ◽  
Spanish Bilinguals

This study assesses the scope of the Crosslinguistic Influence (CLI) hypothesis’ predictions with regard to early bilingual acquisition. To this end, we analyze longitudinal corpus data from four bilinguals attesting the acquisition of subjecthood (null versus overt; preverbal versus postverbal) and the pragmatic adequacy of early null and overt subjects in a null-subject language (i.e., Spanish) in combination with a language differing in its pro-drop parameter setting (i.e., English). Our results indicate that CLI barely affects the development of subjects in the null-subject language at the initial stages, namely at the outset of null and overt subjects, and in turn support the Separate Development Hypothesis. Our bilingual cohort patterns with their Spanish-acquiring monolingual peer in that both groups display comparable proportions of null subjects as well as acquisitional trajectories of null and overt subjects at the early stages of acquisition. Much like monolinguals, bilinguals begin to produce preverbal and postverbal subjects concurrently. The bilingual children and the monolingual child of this study actually produce extremely high rates of pragmatically appropriate covert and overt subjects, which are for the most part target-like from the start, thus pointing to the absence of CLI effects. In light of monolingual and bilingual data, the paper also revisits the hotly debated issue of the ‘no overt subject’ stage of Grinstead (1998, et seq.), its existence in child Spanish being questionable.

scholarly journals Variation in subject doubling in Homeland and Heritage Faetar

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharina Pabst ◽  
Lex Konnelly ◽  
Fiona Wilson ◽  
Savannah Meslin ◽  
Naomi Nagy
Keyword(s):  
Null Subjects ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
New Information

This paper investigates subject doubling in Faetar, an endangered and understudied variety of Francoprovençal. Comparing Homeland speakers (i.e., speakers who were born and raised in Faeto) and Heritage speakers of the language (i.e., speakers who emigrated to Toronto, Canada after age 18, and their children), we find some striking differences. Our results show that subject doubling is grammatically constrained in the source variety: Homeland speakers favor doubling in new information contexts, while Heritage speakers do not. There is also evidence for a change in progress among Homeland speakers, with younger speakers using more subject doubling than older speakers. This change is not mirrored by the Heritage speakers. We propose that this is because the Heritage speakers left the Homeland either before or around the time that the youngest Homeland speakers in our sample were born, resulting in them having missed out on this change. This highlights that both Homeland and Heritage varieties are dynamic and may develop in different directions. Additionally, this study helps complete the picture previously reported for variation between overt (single or doubled) and null subjects in these two varieties: an ongoing decrease in null subject rates in the Homeland variety and stability in the Heritage variety (Nagy et al. 2018).

Parameter setting and acceleration

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-184
Author(s):  
Elena Scalise ◽  
Johanna Stahnke ◽  
Natascha Müller
Keyword(s):  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Parameter Setting ◽  
Null Subjects ◽  
Longitudinal Case Study ◽  
Present Contribution ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
Verb Classes

Abstract The present contribution analyzes the acquisition of subjects in French based on a longitudinal case study of a trilingual child aged 2;8–3;2 who acquired French, Italian and Spanish simultaneously. The three languages vary with respect to the null-subject property; French is traditionally characterized as a non-null-subject language, while Italian and Spanish are prototypical null-subject languages. Argument subject omissions in French are ungrammatical but frequently observed in monolingual children in early acquisitional phases, as are ungrammatical postverbal subjects which cluster with null-subjects. Bilingual children acquiring French produce fewer subject omissions and postverbal subjects. The present study also finds an acceleration effect in the trilingual child. The results are interpreted in light of a parameter setting which accounts for different verb classes at different locations with which the null-subjects occur, giving rise to ‘categorial CS’ or ‘congruent categorialization.’

Grammatical Gender in Atypical Language Development

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Juana M. Liceras ◽  
Estela Garcia-Alcaraz
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Disorder ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Sentence Completion ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Behavioral Disturbances ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
English Dominant ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Gender Matching

We use code-switched structures to investigate how gender is represented in the mind of an adult English-Spanish bilingual (Spanish is the Heritage language) who has Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS), a genetic disorder that presents both behavioral disturbances and intellectual and linguistic disabilities. The latter remains entirely unexplored in the case of bilingual speakers. Previous research (Liceras et al., 2016) using an Acceptability Judgment Task (AJT) and a Sentence Completion Task (SCT) has shown that typically-developing (TD) Spanish-dominant English-Spanish bilinguals (but not English-dominant bilinguals) prefer gender-matching switched Determiner+Noun (concord) and Subject+Adjectival Predicate (agreement) structures, as La[theF] house[casaF] or The house[la casaF] es roja[is redF] over non-matching ones, as El[theM] house[casaF] or The house[la casaF] es rojo[is redM], which means that these bilinguals abide by the so- called ‘analogical criterion’ (AC): they assign English Nouns the gender of their translation equivalent in Spanish. These same two tasks were administered to a 34 year-old male English-Spanish bilingual (English dominant) with PWS. The results show that in the AJT, he rates both matching and non-matching concord and agreement structures high but has a stronger preference for all structures that abide by the AC. In the SCT, he unambiguously abides by the AC with both types of structures as TD Spanish-dominant bilinguals do. These results constitute a first step towards investigating which linguistic abilities may be compromised in the case of the PWS population and provide evidence that bilingualism does not seem to have a negative effect on the activation of formal features in their grammars.

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