English questions, Spanish structure
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Lisa Hsin
Abstract
Bilingual children separate their two languages from the beginning of development, yet there are signs of grammatical influence between their languages in highly constrained contexts until age 5 or later. While much syntactic ‘interlinguistic influence’ is marked by word order interference, this study considers novel data from Spanish-English bilinguals that show that their acquisition of English wh-questions is accelerated relative to that of their monolingual peers. I explain these data as resulting from a sharing of structure between Spanish, in which the CP is independently acquired early, and English, which requires that projection for its target form; the operations required to derive this utterance type in each language inform the disparity in their acquisition by monolinguals, and similarly the absence of this disparity in bilinguals. In light of this account, I reevaluate a guiding supposition of bilingual acquisition research that bilinguals possess two separate grammars, proposing a closer relationship between a child’s two languages.
Abstract
Bilingual children separate their two languages from the beginning of development, yet there are signs of grammatical influence between their languages in highly constrained contexts until age 5 or later. While much syntactic ‘interlinguistic influence’ is marked by word order interference, this study considers novel data from Spanish-English bilinguals that show that their acquisition of English wh-questions is accelerated relative to that of their monolingual peers. I explain these data as resulting from a sharing of structure between Spanish, in which the CP is independently acquired early, and English, which requires that projection for its target form; the operations required to derive this utterance type in each language inform the disparity in their acquisition by monolinguals, and similarly the absence of this disparity in bilinguals. In light of this account, I reevaluate a guiding supposition of bilingual acquisition research that bilinguals possess two separate grammars, proposing a closer relationship between a child’s two languages.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword and Acknowledgments vii
- Editors’ introduction 1
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Part I. Sound patterns
- Sibilant voicing assimilation in peninsular Spanish as gestural blending 17
- Phonology-morphology opacity in Harmonic Serialism 39
- Morphologically conditioned intervocalic rhotacism in Algherese Catalan 63
- Muta cum liquida in the light of Tertenia Sardinian metathesis and compensatory lengthening Latin tr > Old French Vrr 77
- Schwa at the phonology/syntax interface 101
- Weight effects across verbal domains 119
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Part II. Syntax and semantics
- On truth persistence 135
- Pick some but not all alternatives! 155
- Polarity fronting in Romanian and Sardinian 173
- Degree quantification and scope in Puerto Rican Spanish 199
- ‘Minimal link constraint’ violations 213
- On subjunctives and islandhood 233
- When control can’t be a fact 255
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Part III. Historical aspects
- Prevocalic velar advancement in Chilean Spanish and Proto-Romance 277
- The role of the copula in the diachronic development of focus constructions in Portuguese 297
- The French wh interrogative system 315
- On the relation between functional architecture and patterns of change in Romance object clitic syntax 331
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Part IV. Interactions across dialects and languages
- Investigating the effects of perceptual salience and regional dialect on phonetic accommodation in Spanish 351
- English questions, Spanish structure 379
- French oral proficiency assessment 401
- Name index 417
- Subject index 423
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword and Acknowledgments vii
- Editors’ introduction 1
-
Part I. Sound patterns
- Sibilant voicing assimilation in peninsular Spanish as gestural blending 17
- Phonology-morphology opacity in Harmonic Serialism 39
- Morphologically conditioned intervocalic rhotacism in Algherese Catalan 63
- Muta cum liquida in the light of Tertenia Sardinian metathesis and compensatory lengthening Latin tr > Old French Vrr 77
- Schwa at the phonology/syntax interface 101
- Weight effects across verbal domains 119
-
Part II. Syntax and semantics
- On truth persistence 135
- Pick some but not all alternatives! 155
- Polarity fronting in Romanian and Sardinian 173
- Degree quantification and scope in Puerto Rican Spanish 199
- ‘Minimal link constraint’ violations 213
- On subjunctives and islandhood 233
- When control can’t be a fact 255
-
Part III. Historical aspects
- Prevocalic velar advancement in Chilean Spanish and Proto-Romance 277
- The role of the copula in the diachronic development of focus constructions in Portuguese 297
- The French wh interrogative system 315
- On the relation between functional architecture and patterns of change in Romance object clitic syntax 331
-
Part IV. Interactions across dialects and languages
- Investigating the effects of perceptual salience and regional dialect on phonetic accommodation in Spanish 351
- English questions, Spanish structure 379
- French oral proficiency assessment 401
- Name index 417
- Subject index 423
