Chapter 4. The acquisition of grammatical gender in child and adult heritage speakers of Spanish
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Alejandro Cuza
Abstract
Previous work on the acquisition of grammatical gender in child and adult heritage speakers of Spanish has found significant mismatches in gender agreement stemming from overgeneralization of the masculine form to contexts in which the feminine is required. It has been argued that these divergences stem from various sources including incomplete acquisition during childhood (e.g. Montrul & Potowski, 2007; Montrul, Foote, & Perpiñan, 2008), form/meaning mapping issues (e.g. Alarcón, 2011) or reconfiguration of gender features (e.g. Cuza & Pérez-Tattam, 2016; Scontras, Polinsky, & Fuchs, 2018). The goal of the present chapter is to examine this previous work on grammatical gender and the extent to which it can shed light on more recent proposals on heritage language theorizing. We follow the Bilingual Alignment Approach (Sánchez, 2019) to argue that the divergences heritage speakers show can be better accounted for in relation to crosslinguistic influence at the level of bilingual alignments, linguistic proficiency and specific patterns of language exposure and usage.
Abstract
Previous work on the acquisition of grammatical gender in child and adult heritage speakers of Spanish has found significant mismatches in gender agreement stemming from overgeneralization of the masculine form to contexts in which the feminine is required. It has been argued that these divergences stem from various sources including incomplete acquisition during childhood (e.g. Montrul & Potowski, 2007; Montrul, Foote, & Perpiñan, 2008), form/meaning mapping issues (e.g. Alarcón, 2011) or reconfiguration of gender features (e.g. Cuza & Pérez-Tattam, 2016; Scontras, Polinsky, & Fuchs, 2018). The goal of the present chapter is to examine this previous work on grammatical gender and the extent to which it can shed light on more recent proposals on heritage language theorizing. We follow the Bilingual Alignment Approach (Sánchez, 2019) to argue that the divergences heritage speakers show can be better accounted for in relation to crosslinguistic influence at the level of bilingual alignments, linguistic proficiency and specific patterns of language exposure and usage.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- About the contributors vii
- Chapter 1. Introduction 1
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Part I. Review chapters
- Chapter 2. Gender assignment in mixed noun phrases 13
- Chapter 3. Empirical evidence for subtle gender biases in language 49
- Chapter 4. The acquisition of grammatical gender in child and adult heritage speakers of Spanish 71
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Part II. Child, adult and heritage speakers
- Chapter 5. The second language acquisition of grammatical gender and number in Italian 97
- Chapter 6. Grammatical gender and article use in beginning learners of German 127
- Chapter 7. The non-default gender category in additional-language French 157
- Chapter 8. Investigating grammatical gender agreement in Spanish 183
- Chapter 9. Cross-linguistic influence in bilingual grammars 209
- Chapter 10. Prediction on the basis of gender and number in Mandarin-Italian bilingual children 243
- Language index 273
- Name index 275
- Subject index 281
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- About the contributors vii
- Chapter 1. Introduction 1
-
Part I. Review chapters
- Chapter 2. Gender assignment in mixed noun phrases 13
- Chapter 3. Empirical evidence for subtle gender biases in language 49
- Chapter 4. The acquisition of grammatical gender in child and adult heritage speakers of Spanish 71
-
Part II. Child, adult and heritage speakers
- Chapter 5. The second language acquisition of grammatical gender and number in Italian 97
- Chapter 6. Grammatical gender and article use in beginning learners of German 127
- Chapter 7. The non-default gender category in additional-language French 157
- Chapter 8. Investigating grammatical gender agreement in Spanish 183
- Chapter 9. Cross-linguistic influence in bilingual grammars 209
- Chapter 10. Prediction on the basis of gender and number in Mandarin-Italian bilingual children 243
- Language index 273
- Name index 275
- Subject index 281
