Clitic omission in bilingual Portuguese-Spanish acquisition
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Marina Cestari Nardelli
Abstract
This study investigates clitic omission in Portuguese-Spanish bilingual children, comparing them to monolingual children. Children in the target group were simultaneous bilinguals between 3 and 5 years old, living in Portugal and attending a Spanish school. Bilinguals were administered two versions of a production test, which elicited clitics in three different contexts: (i) accusative third person in simple sentences; (ii) accusative third person in adjunct islands; (iii) reflexive third person in simple sentences. Results show that the rates of omission in the bilinguals’ Spanish are higher than in Spanish monolinguals, but bilinguals distinguish the two languages and the different contexts: omission is higher in Portuguese than in Spanish, and higher with accusatives in simple sentences than in the other contexts.
Abstract
This study investigates clitic omission in Portuguese-Spanish bilingual children, comparing them to monolingual children. Children in the target group were simultaneous bilinguals between 3 and 5 years old, living in Portugal and attending a Spanish school. Bilinguals were administered two versions of a production test, which elicited clitics in three different contexts: (i) accusative third person in simple sentences; (ii) accusative third person in adjunct islands; (iii) reflexive third person in simple sentences. Results show that the rates of omission in the bilinguals’ Spanish are higher than in Spanish monolinguals, but bilinguals distinguish the two languages and the different contexts: omission is higher in Portuguese than in Spanish, and higher with accusatives in simple sentences than in the other contexts.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
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Part I. The acquisition of subjects
- French experiencer verbs and the Universal Freezing Hypothesis 7
- Discrimination of passive predicates by Brazilian Portuguese-speaking children 31
- The acquisition of Spanish 57
- Favorable processing conditions in the production of passive sentences by Brazilian Portuguese-speaking children 91
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Part II. The TP field
- Clitic omission in bilingual Portuguese-Spanish acquisition 119
- Syntactic awareness of clitic pronouns and articles in French-speaking children with autism, specific language impairment and developmental dyslexia 147
- The comprehension of Italian negation in Mandarin-Italian sequential bilingual children 169
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Part III. The CP field and recursion
- Subject position in Spanish as a heritage language in the Netherlands: External and internal interface factors 187
- Acquisition of backward anaphora in European Portuguese by Chinese learners 215
- Sentence repetition and language impairment in French-speaking children with ASD 235
- On the comprehension of recursive nominal modifiers in child Romanian 259
- Name index 279
- Subject index 285
- Language index 287
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. The acquisition of subjects
- French experiencer verbs and the Universal Freezing Hypothesis 7
- Discrimination of passive predicates by Brazilian Portuguese-speaking children 31
- The acquisition of Spanish 57
- Favorable processing conditions in the production of passive sentences by Brazilian Portuguese-speaking children 91
-
Part II. The TP field
- Clitic omission in bilingual Portuguese-Spanish acquisition 119
- Syntactic awareness of clitic pronouns and articles in French-speaking children with autism, specific language impairment and developmental dyslexia 147
- The comprehension of Italian negation in Mandarin-Italian sequential bilingual children 169
-
Part III. The CP field and recursion
- Subject position in Spanish as a heritage language in the Netherlands: External and internal interface factors 187
- Acquisition of backward anaphora in European Portuguese by Chinese learners 215
- Sentence repetition and language impairment in French-speaking children with ASD 235
- On the comprehension of recursive nominal modifiers in child Romanian 259
- Name index 279
- Subject index 285
- Language index 287
