Chapter 2. Aspects of morphosyntax of Majorcan Catalan-Spanish bilingual variety
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Pedro Guijarro-Fuentes
Abstract
This paper studies structural convergence between two Romance languages that are in close contact. More specifically, it analyzes the differences in clitic realization and object omission in Spanish and Catalan. While in Spanish it is possible to omit phrases corresponding to direct objects based on their definiteness (Campos, 1986; Clements, 2006) and not to their syntactic position, Catalan does not regularly omit object pronouns but requires the use of the partitive en with indefinite antecedents. A five-point Likert scale grammaticality judgment task adapted from Bruhn de Garavito & Guijarro-Fuentes (2002) was designed to measure the acceptability of different object expressions in 70 different constructions in Spanish by monolingual native speakers (n = 44) and Catalan-Spanish bilingual speakers (n = 34). In the task, participants read a short dialogue containing a question and a short answer and were asked to rate the naturalness of the answer. Linguistic variables included the type of syntactic structure (simple or complex clauses), the semantic properties of the referent (+/- definite), and the grammaticality of the utterance. Stimuli were replicated seven times per condition. Results indicated significant differences between monolinguals and bilinguals, as the latter systematically accept ample optionality concerning null direct objects. Conversely, differences according to language dominance in the bilingual group could not be verified. Our data allow us to discuss views on the realization of interpretable features and on bilingual variability.
Abstract
This paper studies structural convergence between two Romance languages that are in close contact. More specifically, it analyzes the differences in clitic realization and object omission in Spanish and Catalan. While in Spanish it is possible to omit phrases corresponding to direct objects based on their definiteness (Campos, 1986; Clements, 2006) and not to their syntactic position, Catalan does not regularly omit object pronouns but requires the use of the partitive en with indefinite antecedents. A five-point Likert scale grammaticality judgment task adapted from Bruhn de Garavito & Guijarro-Fuentes (2002) was designed to measure the acceptability of different object expressions in 70 different constructions in Spanish by monolingual native speakers (n = 44) and Catalan-Spanish bilingual speakers (n = 34). In the task, participants read a short dialogue containing a question and a short answer and were asked to rate the naturalness of the answer. Linguistic variables included the type of syntactic structure (simple or complex clauses), the semantic properties of the referent (+/- definite), and the grammaticality of the utterance. Stimuli were replicated seven times per condition. Results indicated significant differences between monolinguals and bilinguals, as the latter systematically accept ample optionality concerning null direct objects. Conversely, differences according to language dominance in the bilingual group could not be verified. Our data allow us to discuss views on the realization of interpretable features and on bilingual variability.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Introduction 1
-
Section 1. The acquisition of pronouns
- Chapter 1. Anaphora resolution in L2 European Portuguese 12
- Chapter 2. Aspects of morphosyntax of Majorcan Catalan-Spanish bilingual variety 34
-
Section 2. The acquisition of or empty categories
- Chapter 3. The acquisition of generic null subjects under the Borer-Chomsky conjecture 58
- Chapter 4. The acquisition of object drop in L2 Spanish by German speakers 86
- Chapter 5. Parameter setting in multilingual children with special reference to acceleration in French 114
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Section 3. The development of locality
- Chapter 6. Relative clauses and intervention effects 146
- Chapter 7. On the production of subject and object relative clauses by child speakers of heritage Romanian in France 168
-
Section 4. The development of quantifiers
- Chapter 8. “Nobody” isn’t in time 198
- Chapter 9. Quantifier comprehension in Brazilian Portuguese and the extra-object visual effect 212
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Section 5. Language impairment
- Chapter 10. On the production and omission of dative and accusative clitics in Italian children with learning difficulties 232
- Chapter 11. The narrative abilities of Spanish monolinguals and Spanish–Catalan bilinguals with Prader–Willi syndrome 253
- Chapter 12. Code-switching and code-mixing in bilingual Spanish–Catalan children with and without Developmental Language Disorder 283
- Index 307
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Introduction 1
-
Section 1. The acquisition of pronouns
- Chapter 1. Anaphora resolution in L2 European Portuguese 12
- Chapter 2. Aspects of morphosyntax of Majorcan Catalan-Spanish bilingual variety 34
-
Section 2. The acquisition of or empty categories
- Chapter 3. The acquisition of generic null subjects under the Borer-Chomsky conjecture 58
- Chapter 4. The acquisition of object drop in L2 Spanish by German speakers 86
- Chapter 5. Parameter setting in multilingual children with special reference to acceleration in French 114
-
Section 3. The development of locality
- Chapter 6. Relative clauses and intervention effects 146
- Chapter 7. On the production of subject and object relative clauses by child speakers of heritage Romanian in France 168
-
Section 4. The development of quantifiers
- Chapter 8. “Nobody” isn’t in time 198
- Chapter 9. Quantifier comprehension in Brazilian Portuguese and the extra-object visual effect 212
-
Section 5. Language impairment
- Chapter 10. On the production and omission of dative and accusative clitics in Italian children with learning difficulties 232
- Chapter 11. The narrative abilities of Spanish monolinguals and Spanish–Catalan bilinguals with Prader–Willi syndrome 253
- Chapter 12. Code-switching and code-mixing in bilingual Spanish–Catalan children with and without Developmental Language Disorder 283
- Index 307
