The Distribution of Manner and Frequency Adverbs in Child Heritage Speakers of Spanish
We investigate the acquisition of adverb placement in Spanish among school-age child heritage speakers of Spanish born and raised in the US by Mexican parents. We examine frequency and manner adverbs with negative and positive polarity and the potential role of cross-linguistic influence, dominance,...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-12-01
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| Series: | Languages |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/9/1/1 |
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| author | Edier Gómez Alzate Alejandro Cuza José Camacho Dafne Zanelli |
| author_facet | Edier Gómez Alzate Alejandro Cuza José Camacho Dafne Zanelli |
| author_sort | Edier Gómez Alzate |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | We investigate the acquisition of adverb placement in Spanish among school-age child heritage speakers of Spanish born and raised in the US by Mexican parents. We examine frequency and manner adverbs with negative and positive polarity and the potential role of cross-linguistic influence, dominance, and experience in the path and rate of development. Fourteen child heritage speakers of Spanish born and raised in the US and twenty-five Spanish monolingual children from Mexico completed an elicited production task. Results showed that the heritage children produced significantly fewer verb-raising structures compared to the monolingual children, leading to a higher proportion of pre-verbal adverb use and adverb-final use. The heritage children treated manner and frequency adverbs with negative and positive polarity significantly differently. We also found a strong correlation between dominance and experience in the probability of producing specific adverbial positions. In other words, common adverbial positions in English were more likely to be produced with higher dominance and experience in English; likewise, Spanish adverbial positions were more likely to be used with higher dominance and experience in Spanish. We argue for differential outcomes in child heritage grammar due to differences in the path and rate of language development as well as the role of dominance and experience in child heritage language acquisition. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T10:44:22Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6a46eb65d78e45c8b916189301812a36 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2226-471X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T10:44:22Z |
| publishDate | 2023-12-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Languages |
| spelling | doaj.art-6a46eb65d78e45c8b916189301812a362024-01-26T17:20:11ZengMDPI AGLanguages2226-471X2023-12-0191110.3390/languages9010001The Distribution of Manner and Frequency Adverbs in Child Heritage Speakers of SpanishEdier Gómez Alzate0Alejandro Cuza1José Camacho2Dafne Zanelli3Department of Linguistics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USASchool of Languages and Cultures, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USASchool of Literatures, Cultural Studies and Linguistics, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607, USADepartment of Linguistics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USAWe investigate the acquisition of adverb placement in Spanish among school-age child heritage speakers of Spanish born and raised in the US by Mexican parents. We examine frequency and manner adverbs with negative and positive polarity and the potential role of cross-linguistic influence, dominance, and experience in the path and rate of development. Fourteen child heritage speakers of Spanish born and raised in the US and twenty-five Spanish monolingual children from Mexico completed an elicited production task. Results showed that the heritage children produced significantly fewer verb-raising structures compared to the monolingual children, leading to a higher proportion of pre-verbal adverb use and adverb-final use. The heritage children treated manner and frequency adverbs with negative and positive polarity significantly differently. We also found a strong correlation between dominance and experience in the probability of producing specific adverbial positions. In other words, common adverbial positions in English were more likely to be produced with higher dominance and experience in English; likewise, Spanish adverbial positions were more likely to be used with higher dominance and experience in Spanish. We argue for differential outcomes in child heritage grammar due to differences in the path and rate of language development as well as the role of dominance and experience in child heritage language acquisition.https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/9/1/1Spanishheritage childrenadverb distributionverb-raisingalignmentstransfer |
| spellingShingle | Edier Gómez Alzate Alejandro Cuza José Camacho Dafne Zanelli The Distribution of Manner and Frequency Adverbs in Child Heritage Speakers of Spanish Languages Spanish heritage children adverb distribution verb-raising alignments transfer |
| title | The Distribution of Manner and Frequency Adverbs in Child Heritage Speakers of Spanish |
| title_full | The Distribution of Manner and Frequency Adverbs in Child Heritage Speakers of Spanish |
| title_fullStr | The Distribution of Manner and Frequency Adverbs in Child Heritage Speakers of Spanish |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Distribution of Manner and Frequency Adverbs in Child Heritage Speakers of Spanish |
| title_short | The Distribution of Manner and Frequency Adverbs in Child Heritage Speakers of Spanish |
| title_sort | distribution of manner and frequency adverbs in child heritage speakers of spanish |
| topic | Spanish heritage children adverb distribution verb-raising alignments transfer |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/9/1/1 |
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