Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T13:22:48.641Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The L2 acquisition of aspectual properties in Spanish

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Alejandro Cuza
Alejandro Cuza*
Affiliation:
Purdue University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study examines the L2 acquisition and LI attrition of preterite versus imperfect aspectual distinctions in Spanish among English-speaking L2 learners and long-term Spanish-speaking immigrants. Results from an acceptability judgment task and a truth value judgment task demonstrate significantly lower levels of target performance by both groups when compared to the control participants. The L2 learners outperform the native speakers undergoing attrition in some aspectual contexts, while in others both experimental groups show similar difficulties. To the extent that L2 learners and adult immigrants demonstrate comparable difficulties, L2 learners’ deficits cannot be directly related to impairment reasons. LI transfer of the semantic properties of tense heads offers a better explanation for the difficulties L2 learners often show in the aspectual domain.

Résumé

Résumé

Cette étude examine l’acquisition d’une L2 et l’attrition de l’opposition prétérit/imparfait en espagnol Ll parmi des apprenants anglophones de la L2 et des immigrés hispanophones qui habitent depuis longtemps dans leur nouveau pays. Les résultats de deux tâches de jugement, d’acceptabilité grammaticale d’une part et de valeur de vérité de l’autre, démontrent des niveaux de performance cible sensiblement plus bas chez les deux groupes comparativement aux participants du groupe témoin. La performance des apprenants de L2 est supérieure à celle des hispanophones natifs dont la Ll est en attrition pour certains contextes aspectuels, tandis que les autres contextes aspectuels présentent des difficultés similaires pour les deux groupes expérimentaux. Dans la mesure où les apprenants de L2 et les immigrés adultes démontrent des difficultés comparables, les déficits des apprenants de L2 ne peuvent pas être directement liés à des raisons d’infirmité. Le transfert des propriétés sémantiques des têtes temporelles de la Ll offre une meilleure explication des difficultés que connaissent les apprenants de L2 dans le domaine aspectuel.

Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 55 , Issue 2 , July 2010 , pp. 181 - 208
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association/Association canadienne de linguistique 2010 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bardovi-Harlig, Kathleen. 1992. Use of adverbials and natural order in the development of temporal expression. International Review of Applied Linguistics 30:299–320.Google Scholar
Bardovi-Harlig, Kathleen. 2000. Tense and aspect in second language acquisition: Form, meaning and use. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Bialystok, Ellen and Hakuta, Kenji. 1994. In other words: The psychology and science of second language acquisition. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Birdsong, David. 1992. Ultimate attainment in second language acquisition. Language 68:706–755.Google Scholar
Boersma, Paul. 2001. Praat, a system for doing phonetics by computer. Glot International 5:341–345.Google Scholar
Bongaerts, Theo. 1999. Ultimate attainment in L2 pronunciation: the case of very advanced late learners. In Second language acquisition and the critical period hypothesis, ed. Birdsong, David, 133–160. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Bruhn de Garavito, Joyce. 1995. L2 acquisition of verb complementation and Binding Principle B. In Second language acquisition theory and pedagogy, ed. Eckman, Fred R., Mileham, Jean, Weber, Rita Rutkowski, and Highland, Diane, 79–99. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Carlson, Gregory and Jeffrey Pelletier, Francis. 1995. The generic book. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. 1995. The minimalist program. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Comrie, Bernard. 1976. Aspect. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Coppieters, Rene. 1987. Competence differences between native and near native speakers. Language 64:544–573.Google Scholar
Crain, Stephen and Thornton, Rosalind. 1998. Investigations in universal grammar: Guide to experiments on the acquisition of syntax and semantics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Dekydtspotter, Lauren, Sprouse, Rex, and Anderson, Bruce. 1997. The interpretative interface in L2 acquisition: The process-result distinction in English-French interlanguage Grammars. Language Acquisition 6:297–332.Google Scholar
Gass, Susan 1996. Second language acquisition and linguistic theory: The role of language transfer. In The handbook of second language acquisition, ed. Ritchie, William C. and Bhatia, Ted K., 317–345. San Diego: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Giorgi, Alessandra and Pianesi, Fabio. 1997. Tense and aspect: From semantics to morphosyn-tax. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gürel, Ayse. 2004. Selectivity in L2-induced LI attrition: A psycholinguistic account. Journal of Neurolinguistics 17:53–78.Google Scholar
Jarvis, Ana, Lebredo, Raquel, and Mena-Ayllón, Francisco. 2004. ¡Hola, amigos! Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.Google Scholar
Johnson, Jacqueline and Newport, Elissa. 1989. Critical period effects in second language learning: The influence of maturational state on the acquisition of English as a second language. Cognitive Psychology 21:60–69.Google Scholar
Köpke, Barbara. 2004. Neurolinguistic aspects of attrition. Journal of Neurolinguistics 17:3–30.Google Scholar
Köpke, Barbara and Schmid, Monika. 2004. First language attrition: The next phase. In First language attrition: Interdisciplinary perspectives on methodological issues, ed. Schmid, Monika, Köpke, Barbara, Keijzer, Merel, and Weilemar, Lina, 1–45. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Lenneberg, Eric 1967. Biological foundations of language. New York: Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Montrul, Silvina. 2002. Incomplete acquisition and attrition of Spanish tense/aspect distinction in adult bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 5:39–68.Google Scholar
Montrul, Silvina and Slabakova, Rumyana 2002. The L2 acquisition of morphosyntactic and semantic properties of the aspectual tenses preterite and imperfect. In The acquisition of Spanish morphosyntax, ed. Pérez-Leroux, Ana Teresa and Liceras, Juana, 113–149. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic.Google Scholar
Montrul, Silvina and Slabakova, Rumyana. 2003. Competence similarities between native and near-native speakers. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 25:351–398.Google Scholar
Oliveira, Fatima and Lopes, Ana. 1995. Tense and aspect in Portuguese. In Tense systems in European languages, ed. Thieroff, Rolf, 95–110. Tubingen: Max Niemeyer.Google Scholar
Pavlenko, Aneta. 2000. L2 influence on LI in late bilingualism. Issues in Applied Linguistics 11:175–205.Google Scholar
Pérez-Leroux, Ana Teresa, Cuza, Alejandro, Majzlanova, Monica, and Sánchez-Naranjo, Jeannette. 2008. Non-native recognition of the iterative and habitual meanings of Spanish preterite and imperfect tenses. In The role of formal features in second language acquisition, ed. Liceras, Juana M., Zobl, Helmut, and Goodluck, Helen, 432–451. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Robertson, Dan. 2000. Variability in the use of the English article system by Chinese learners of English. Second Language Research 16:135–72.Google Scholar
Robertson, Dan and Sorace, Antonella. 1999. Losing the V2 constraint. In The development of second language grammars: A generative approach, ed. Klein, Elaine and Martohardjono, Gita, 317–361. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Schmitt, Cristina. 1996. Aspect and the syntax of noun phrases. Doctoral dissertation, University of Maryland at College Park.Google Scholar
Schmitt, Cristina. 2001. Cross-linguistic variation and the present perfect: The case of Portuguese. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 19:403–453.Google Scholar
Schwartz, Bonnie and Sprouse, Rex. 1996. L2 cognitive states and the full transfer/full access model. Second Language Research 12:40–72.Google Scholar
Seliger, Hebert. 1996. Primary language attrition in the context of bilingualism. In Handbook of second language acquisition, ed. Ritchie, William C. and Bhatia, Ted K., 605–625. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Sharwood-Smith, Michael and Van, Paul Buren. 1991. First language attrition and the parameter setting model. In First language attrition, ed. Seliger, Herbert and Vago, Robert, 19–51. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Slabakova, Rumyana (2000). Transfer revisited: the L2 acquisition of telicity marking in English by Spanish and Bulgarian native speakers. Linguistics 38:739–770.Google Scholar
Smith, Carlota. 1997. The parameter of aspect. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic.Google Scholar
Sorace, Antonella. 1996. The use of acceptability judgments in SLA research. In Handbook of second language acquisition, ed. Ritchie, William C. and Bhatia, Ted K., 375–409. San Diego: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Sorace, Antonella. 2000. Differential effects of attrition in the LI syntax of near-native L2 speakers. In Proceedings of the 24th Boston University Conference on Language Development, ed. Howell, Catherine, Fish, Sarah, and Keith-Lucas, Thea, 719–725. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Sorace, Antonella. 2004. Native language attrition and developmental instability at the syntax-discourse interface: Data, interpretations and methods. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 7:143–145.Google Scholar
Sorace, Antonella. 2005. Syntactic optionality at interfaces. In Syntax and variation: Reconciling the biological and the social, ed. Cornips, Leonie and Corrigan, Karen, 46–111. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
de Swart, Henriette 1998. Aspect shift and coercion. Natural Languages and Linguistic Theory 16:347–385.Google Scholar
Tsimpli, Ianthi Maria, Sorace, Antonella, Heycock, Caroline, and Filiaci, Francesca. 2004. First language attrition and syntactic subjects: A study of Greek and Italian near-native speakers of English. International Journal of Bilingualism 8:257–277.Google Scholar
Vendler, Zeno. 1967. Linguistics in philosophy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Verkuyl, Henk. 1972. On the compositional nature of the aspects. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Weinreich, Uriel. 1953. Language in contact. New York: Publications of the Linguistic Circle of New York.Google Scholar
White, Lydia. 1988. Universal grammar and language transfer. In Learnability and second language: A book of readings, ed. Pankhurst, James, Sharwood-Smith, Michael, and Van Buren, Paul, 36–60. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
White, Lydia and Genesee, Fred. 1996. How native is near native? The issue of ultimate attainment in adult second language acquisition. Second Language Research 12:233–265.Google Scholar
Zobl, Helmut. 1980. The formal and developmental selectivity of LI influence on L2 acquisition. Language Learning 30:43–57.Google Scholar