The linguistic competence of second-generation bilinguals
-
Ricardo Otheguy
Abstract
This paper discusses the native linguistic competence of second-generation bilinguals born of immigrant, refugee, expatriate, or otherwise dislocated parents, concentrating on the grammars of second-generation Hispanics in the U.S. Scholarly opinion has gravitated toward the position that the Spanish of these speakers reflects a process of incomplete acquisition. This paper invites examination of the alternative view, namely: what we observe in second-generation bilingual Latinos is not errors, as they are frequently described in the literature, but rather points of divergence between their Spanish and that of the previous generation, due to normal intergenerational language change accelerated by conditions of language contact. The notion of incomplete acquisition rests on an incorrect view of child language acquisition as a process of perfect reproduction of parental grammars. But the process is one where children engage in grammar construction through hypothesis testing. Consequently, all next-generation grammars end up somewhat different from parental ones, paving the way for language change. The grammars of U.S.-born Latinos are thus, like all next-generation grammars, different, not incomplete. Examining the use of subjunctives for a brief illustration, grammarians regularly note variability in cases like Quizás venga (subjunctive) ~ Quizás viene (indicative) but obligatoriness in Quiero que lo llames (subjunctive), with the indicative alternative occurring seldom or never, and analyzable as ungrammatical, *Quiero que lo llamas (indicative). Second generation bilinguals have extended variability, so that for them the latter is usable, and analyzable as grammatical, a fact that disables these bilinguals from successful participation in experiments centered on somebody else’s grammaticality judgments, leading to conclusions of incompleteness.
Abstract
This paper discusses the native linguistic competence of second-generation bilinguals born of immigrant, refugee, expatriate, or otherwise dislocated parents, concentrating on the grammars of second-generation Hispanics in the U.S. Scholarly opinion has gravitated toward the position that the Spanish of these speakers reflects a process of incomplete acquisition. This paper invites examination of the alternative view, namely: what we observe in second-generation bilingual Latinos is not errors, as they are frequently described in the literature, but rather points of divergence between their Spanish and that of the previous generation, due to normal intergenerational language change accelerated by conditions of language contact. The notion of incomplete acquisition rests on an incorrect view of child language acquisition as a process of perfect reproduction of parental grammars. But the process is one where children engage in grammar construction through hypothesis testing. Consequently, all next-generation grammars end up somewhat different from parental ones, paving the way for language change. The grammars of U.S.-born Latinos are thus, like all next-generation grammars, different, not incomplete. Examining the use of subjunctives for a brief illustration, grammarians regularly note variability in cases like Quizás venga (subjunctive) ~ Quizás viene (indicative) but obligatoriness in Quiero que lo llames (subjunctive), with the indicative alternative occurring seldom or never, and analyzable as ungrammatical, *Quiero que lo llamas (indicative). Second generation bilinguals have extended variability, so that for them the latter is usable, and analyzable as grammatical, a fact that disables these bilinguals from successful participation in experiments centered on somebody else’s grammaticality judgments, leading to conclusions of incompleteness.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction vii
- Root gerunds in Old Romanian 1
- Old French possessives and ellipsis 21
- The generalization of preposition para via fusion and ensuing loss of compositionality 39
- On capacities and their epistemic extensions 59
- Beyond the subject DP versus the subject pronoun divide in agreement switches 79
- Epistemic adverbs, the prosody-syntax interface, and the theory of phases 99
- Romanian tough-constructions and multi-headed constituents 119
- Depictive secondary predicates in Spanish and the relative/absolute distinction 139
- Gender agreement with animate nouns in French 159
- French loanwords in Korean 177
- Affirmative polar replies in Brazilian Portuguese 195
- Participle fronting and clause structure in Old and Middle French 213
- “Toned-up” Spanish 233
- On null objects and ellipses in Brazilian Portuguese 257
- Age effects and the discrimination of consonantal and vocalic contrasts in heritage and native Spanish 277
- The linguistic competence of second-generation bilinguals 301
- The X 0 syntax of “dative” clitics and the make-up of clitic combinations in Gallo-Romance 321
- Some notes on falloir , devoir , and the theory of control 341
- The phonology of postverbal pronouns in Romance languages 361
- From N to particle 379
- Marsican deixis and the nature of indexical syntax 399
- Index 415
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction vii
- Root gerunds in Old Romanian 1
- Old French possessives and ellipsis 21
- The generalization of preposition para via fusion and ensuing loss of compositionality 39
- On capacities and their epistemic extensions 59
- Beyond the subject DP versus the subject pronoun divide in agreement switches 79
- Epistemic adverbs, the prosody-syntax interface, and the theory of phases 99
- Romanian tough-constructions and multi-headed constituents 119
- Depictive secondary predicates in Spanish and the relative/absolute distinction 139
- Gender agreement with animate nouns in French 159
- French loanwords in Korean 177
- Affirmative polar replies in Brazilian Portuguese 195
- Participle fronting and clause structure in Old and Middle French 213
- “Toned-up” Spanish 233
- On null objects and ellipses in Brazilian Portuguese 257
- Age effects and the discrimination of consonantal and vocalic contrasts in heritage and native Spanish 277
- The linguistic competence of second-generation bilinguals 301
- The X 0 syntax of “dative” clitics and the make-up of clitic combinations in Gallo-Romance 321
- Some notes on falloir , devoir , and the theory of control 341
- The phonology of postverbal pronouns in Romance languages 361
- From N to particle 379
- Marsican deixis and the nature of indexical syntax 399
- Index 415
