Spanish–English bilinguals’ use of demonstratives esta and esa
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Naomi Shin
and
Fredy Mendieta-Rodríguez
Abstract
The limited research on bilinguals’ demonstratives suggests that bilingualism may result in a reduced number of demonstrative forms in bilinguals’ linguistic systems as well as a shift in the factors that constrain demonstrative usage. The current study investigates Spanish nominal demonstrative use among Spanish-speaking monolingual adults in Mexico and two groups of Spanish–English bilingual adults in New Mexico: Adult Arrivals, who were born and raised in a Spanish-speaking country, and U.S. Raised bilinguals, who were born in the U.S. or arrived by age seven. Proximal demonstratives este/esta ‘this’ and medial demonstratives ese/esa ‘that’ were elicited using a puzzle task. All groups varied between este/esta and ese/esa. The monolinguals were likelier than the bilinguals to produce ese/esa when referring to referents farther from themselves and closer to the addressee. Whereas the monolinguals and Adult Arrivals tended to produce este/esta rather than ese/esa when the experimenter selected the incorrect referent, thereby creating a misunderstanding, the U.S. Raised bilinguals showed the opposite trend. The findings are interpreted in the context of typological research indicating that distance between the addressee and the referent impacts demonstrative usage in Spanish but not English. It is hypothesized that increased exposure to English may correspond to reduced attention to the addressee when choosing which demonstrative to use.
Funding source: W.K. Kellogg Foundation
Award Identifier / Grant number: P-6001841-2021
Acknowledgments
We thank the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the University of New Mexico Women in STEM Faculty Development Fund for making this study possible. We are also grateful to the participants in this study and our many collaborators, including Jill P. Morford, who provided helpful feedback; Bettie Petersen, who designed the puzzle task; as well as numerous research assistants who have assisted with data collection, compilation, and coding: Elisabeth Baker-Martínez, Huitzili González, Luis Hinojosa-Cantú, Luisa Hurtado Iglesias, Keda Kanye, Sarah Lease, Mariana Marchesi, Jadin Moore, and Molly Perara-Lunde. We also thank the participants in the study and the editor of this journal. Finally, we received excellent and insightful feedback from four anonymous reviewers who helped us strengthen the study. Any remaining errors are ours alone.
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Research funding: This work was funded by W.K. Kellogg Foundation (P-6001841-2021).
Appendix
Adult Arrivals and U.S. Raised participants’ responses to BLP questions.
| BLP question | Adult Arrivals average (Std. Dev) |
U.S. Raised average (Std. Dev) |
Welch two sample t-test |
|---|---|---|---|
| Age of Arrival in the U.S. | 25.79 (5.50) | 1.54 (2.93) | t(28.64) = 16.15, p < 0.0001 |
| Spanish history questions | |||
| Age started learning Spanish | 0.00 (0.00) | 0.69 (2.50) | t(12) = −1, p = 0.34 |
| Age started to feel comfortable in Spanish | 0.58 (1.80) | 1.92 (5.60) | t(13.72) = −0.84, p = 0.42 |
| N years of classes in Spanish | 17.74 (3.38) | 8.15 (5.52) | t(18.15) = 5.58, p < 0.0001 |
| N years in Spanish-speaking region | 19.84 (0.50) | 3.38 (5.94) | t(12.12) = 10.24, p < 0.0001 |
| N years in Spanish-speaking family | 19.42 (1.87) | 17.31 (5.94) | t(13.64) = 1.24, p = 0.24 |
| N years in Spanish-speaking work environment | 12.84 (6.88) | 3.54 (5.50) | t(29.16) = 4.24, p = 0.0002 |
| Percentage of Spanish use questions | |||
| Pct time Spanish with friends | 58.42 (30.05) | 25.38 (18.08) | t(29.64) = 3.88, p = 0.0005 |
| Pct time Spanish with family | 85.79 (25.01) | 70.77 (29.57) | t(22.96) = 1.50, p = 0.15 |
| Pct time Spanish – school/work | 45.79 (32.71) | 26.15 (11.21) | t(23.67) = 2.42, p = 0.02 |
| Pct time Spanish with self | 74.74 (17.75) | 36.15 (19.81) | t(23.99) = 5.64, p < 0.0001 |
| Pct time counts in Spanish | 78.95 (24.24) | 33.85 (28.73) | t(22.91) = 4.64, p = 0.0001 |
| Self-rating questions on a scale of 0 to 6, how well do you… | |||
| Speak Spanish | 5.89 (0.32) | 4.62 (0.87) | t(14.18) = 5.08, p = 0.0002 |
| Understand Spanish | 6.00 (0.00) | 5.46 (0.66) | t(12) = 2.94, p = 0.01 |
| Read Spanish | 6.00 (0.00) | 4.69 (1.03) | t(12) = 4.57, p = 0.0006 |
| Write Spanish | 5.84 (0.50) | 4.15 (1.28) | t(14.54) = 4.52, p = 0.0004 |
| ENGLISH | |||
| English history questions | |||
| Age started learning English | 14.89 (8.55) | 4.54 (2.54) | t(22.38) = 4.97, p < 0.0001 |
| Age started to feel comfortable using English | 19.00 (1.53) | 6.77 (3.96) | t(14.47) = 10.61, p < 0.0001 |
| N year of classes in English | 6.95 (4.90) | 16.23 (3.17) | t(29.94) = −6.50, p < 0.0001 |
| N years in region where English is spoken | 11.21 (6.28) | 18.54 (2.50) | t(25.29) = −4.58, p = 0.0001 |
| N years in family where English is spoken | 5.11 (6.65) | 13.31 (7.52) | t(23.74) = −3.17, p = 0.004 |
| N years in English-speaking work environment | 9.58 (6.99) | 8.46 (7.53) | t(24.62) = 0.42, p = 0.68 |
| Percentage of use questions | |||
| Pct time English with friends | 41.05 (29.98) | 74.62 (18.08) | t(29.65) = −3.94, p = 0.0005 |
| Pct time English with family | 14.74 (24.80) | 29.23 (29.57) | t(22.81) = −1.45, p = 0.16 |
| Pct time English – school/work | 58.42 (31.84) | 73.85 (11.21) | t(23.88) = −2.53, p = 0.02 |
| Pct time talks to self in English | 25.26 (17.75) | 63.85 (19.81) | t(23.99) = −5.64, p < 0.0001 |
| Pct time count – English | 22.11 (24.17) | 66.15 (28.73) | t(22.86) = −4.54, p = 0.0001 |
| Self-rating questions on a scale of 0 to 6, how well do you… | |||
| Speak English | 3.84 (1.34) | 5.54 (0.78) | t(29.36) = −4.51, p < 0.0001 |
| Understand English | 4.53 (1.12) | 5.77 (0.44) | t(25.04) = −4.36, p = 0.0002 |
| Read English | 4.68 (1.20) | 5.69 (0.48) | t(25.29) = −3.29, p = 0.003 |
| Write English | 3.89 (0.99) | 5.38 (0.96) | t(26.53) = −4.25, p = 0.0002 |
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Note: Since there are 30 comparisons reported, the Bonferroni adjustment to a 0.05 significance level results in a 0.001 significance level cut-off.
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© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Y luego un tiburón blanco ha abrido la boca: Spanish children’s overregularization of irregular past participles
- Lectal coherence in a border bilingual community
- Bilinguismo, língua inglesa e mercantilização de línguas: investigando ideologias linguísticas de escolas com programas bilíngues no contexto brasileiro
- Spanish–English bilinguals’ use of demonstratives esta and esa
- Inalienable possession (and lack thereof) in Spanish
- Usos temporales de construcciones gramaticales con verbos de movimiento con dirección inherente: Proyecciones metafóricas y restricciones cognitivo-semánticas en la lengua española
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Y luego un tiburón blanco ha abrido la boca: Spanish children’s overregularization of irregular past participles
- Lectal coherence in a border bilingual community
- Bilinguismo, língua inglesa e mercantilização de línguas: investigando ideologias linguísticas de escolas com programas bilíngues no contexto brasileiro
- Spanish–English bilinguals’ use of demonstratives esta and esa
- Inalienable possession (and lack thereof) in Spanish
- Usos temporales de construcciones gramaticales con verbos de movimiento con dirección inherente: Proyecciones metafóricas y restricciones cognitivo-semánticas en la lengua española
