1887
  1. Home
  2. e-Journals
  3. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism
  4. Volume 13, Issue 6
  5. Article
Volume 13, Issue 6
  • ISSN 1879-9264
  • E-ISSN: 1879-9272
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

Abstract

Naturalistic production research has reported that, unlike monolingual peers, children acquiring Spanish as a heritage language omit Differential Object Marking (DOM) with animate objects since the earliest stages of language development. However, the previous studies investigating longitudinal monolingual and bilingual corpora cannot be compared to each other given their different treatment of language-internal variation in DOM use along the animacy scale. Whereas monolingual results excluded contexts predicted to be variable, bilingual results combined them with categorical contexts increasing the rate of “errors” in the bilingual group. This study reexamines naturalistic production by monolingual and early bilingual children as well as by their caregivers using a common methodology that distinguishes categorical from variable DOM contexts. The results indicate that longitudinal corpora covering child heritage speakers’ development up to age three do not show evidence of greater omission of DOM compared to monolingual children once variability along the animacy scale is accounted for. By contrast, young monolingual and bilingual children’s use of Spanish DOM seems target-like based on their input.

© 2023 John Benjamins Publishing Company
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/lab.21001.req
2022-05-12
2025-05-16

  • From This Site

    /content/journals/10.1075/lab.21001.req
    dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword
    -contentType:Journal -contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
    10
    5
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Aissen, J.
    (2003) Differential object marking: Iconicity vs. economy. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 21(3), 435–483. 10.1023/A:1024109008573
     https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024109008573 [Google Scholar]
  2. Alfaraz, G. G.
    (2011) Accusative object marking: A change in progress in Cuban Spanish?Spanish in Context, 8(2), 213–234. 10.1075/sic.8.2.02alf
     https://doi.org/10.1075/sic.8.2.02alf [Google Scholar]
  3. Arechabaleta Regulez, B., & Montrul, S.
    (2021) Psycholinguistic evidence for incipient language change in Mexican Spanish: The extension of differential object marking. Languages, 6(3), 131. 10.3390/languages6030131
     https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6030131 [Google Scholar]
  4. Balasch, S.
    (2011) Factors determining Spanish differential object marking within its domain of variation. InJ. Michnowicz & R. Dodsworth (Eds.), Selected proceedings of the 5th workshop on Spanish sociolinguistics (pp. 113–124). Cascadilla Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Bossong, G.
    (1991) Differential object marking in Romance and beyond. InD. Wanner & D. Kibbee (Eds.), New Analyses in Romance Linguistics: Selected Papers from theXVIII Linguistic Symposium on Romance Language (pp. 143–170). 10.1075/cilt.69.14bos
     https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.69.14bos [Google Scholar]
  6. Bryant, F. E.
    (1907) On the conservatism of language in a new country. Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, 221, 277–290. 10.2307/456829
     https://doi.org/10.2307/456829 [Google Scholar]
  7. Callen, C. M., & Miller, K.
    (2021) Linguistic variation in the acquisition of morphosyntax: Variable object marking in the speech of Mexican children and their caregivers. Language Learning and Development. 10.1080/15475441.2021.1977133
     https://doi.org/10.1080/15475441.2021.1977133 [Google Scholar]
  8. Chamorro, G., Sturt, P., & Sorace, A.
    (2016) Selectivity in L1 attrition: Differential object marking in Spanish near-native speakers of English. Journal of psycholinguistic research, 45(3), 697–715. 10.1007/s10936‑015‑9372‑4
     https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-015-9372-4 [Google Scholar]
  9. Comrie, B.
    (1986) Markedness, grammar, people, and the world. InF. Eckman, E. Moravcsik & J. Wirth (Eds.), Markedness (pp. 85–106). Plenum Press. 10.1007/978‑1‑4757‑5718‑7_6
     https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-5718-7_6 [Google Scholar]
  10. Croft, W.
    (1988) Agreement vs. case marking and direct objects. InM. Barlow & C. Ferguson (Eds.), Agreement in natural language: Approaches, theories, descriptions (pp. 159–179). CSLI.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Deuchar, M., & Quay, S.
    (2000) Bilingual acquisition: Theoretical implications of a case study. Oxford University Press. 10.1093/oso/9780198236856.001.0001
     https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198236856.001.0001 [Google Scholar]
  12. Elsig, M., & Poplack, S.
    (2006) Transplanted dialects and language change: Question formation in Québec. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics, 12(2), 8.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Fábregas, A.
    (2013) Differential object marking in Spanish: State of the art. Borealis–An International Journal of Hispanic Linguistics, 2(2), 1–80. 10.7557/1.2.2.2603
     https://doi.org/10.7557/1.2.2.2603 [Google Scholar]
  14. Flores, C., & Rinke, E.
    (2020) The relevance of language-internal variation in predicting heritage language grammars. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 23(1), 25–26. 10.1017/S1366728919000464
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728919000464 [Google Scholar]
  15. von Heusinger, K.
    (2008) Verbal semantics and the diachronic development of differential object marking in Spanish. Probus, 20(1), 1–31. 10.1515/PROBUS.2008.001
     https://doi.org/10.1515/PROBUS.2008.001 [Google Scholar]
  16. von Heusinger, K., & Garcia, M.
    (2021, August30–31). Differential object marking and discourse prominence in Spanish [Workshop session]. 54th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea, Athens. https://idsl1.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/personen/professorenseiten/prof-dr-klaus-von-heusinger-1/konferenzen-workshops/sle-causation-from-context-to-grammar
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Hurtado, A. & Vega, L.
    (2004) Shift happens: Spanish and English transmission between parents and their children. Journal of Social Issues601, 187–155. 10.1111/j.0022‑4537.2004.00103.x
     https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0022-4537.2004.00103.x [Google Scholar]
  18. Iemmolo, G.
    (2010) Topicality and differential object marking: Evidence from Romance and beyond. Studies in Language, 34(2), 239–272. 10.1075/sl.34.2.01iem
     https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.34.2.01iem [Google Scholar]
  19. Krause, E., & Roberts, L.
    (2020) Over-sensitivity to the animacy constraint on DOM in low proficient Turkish heritage speakers. InA. Mandrale & S. Montrul (Eds.), The Acquisition of Differential Object Marking, [Trends in Language Acquisition Research], 261 (pp. 313–342). John Benjamins. 10.1075/tilar.26.12kra
     https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.26.12kra [Google Scholar]
  20. Leonetti, M.
    (2004) Specificity and differential object marking in Spanish. Catalan Journal of Linguistics, 3(1), 75–114. 10.5565/rev/catjl.106
     https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/catjl.106 [Google Scholar]
  21. Liceras, J. M., Fuertes, R. F., Perales, S., Pérez-Tattam, R., & Spradlin, K. T.
    (2008) Gender and gender agreement in bilingual native and non-native grammars: A view from child and adult functional–lexical mixings. Lingua, 118(6), 827–851. 10.1016/j.lingua.2007.05.006
     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2007.05.006 [Google Scholar]
  22. Lizárraga-Navarro, G. Z., & Mora-Bustos, A.
    (2010) Variación en la marcación diferenciada de objeto en español (‘Variation in differential object marking in Spanish’). Forma y Función, 23(1), 9–38.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. López, L.
    (2012) Indefinite objects: Scrambling, choice functions and differential marking. MIT Press. 10.7551/mitpress/9165.001.0001
     https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9165.001.0001 [Google Scholar]
  24. MacWhinney, B.
    (2000) The CHILDES project: The database (Vol.21). Psychology Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Montes, R. G.
    (1992) Achieving understanding: Repair mechanisms in mother–child conversations. [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Georgetown University.
  26. Montrul, S.
    (2002) Incomplete acquisition and attrition of Spanish tense/aspect distinctions in adult bilinguals. Bilingualism, 5(1), 39. 10.1017/S1366728902000135
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728902000135 [Google Scholar]
  27. (2004) Subject and object expression in Spanish heritage speakers: A case of morpho-syntactic convergence. Bilingualism, Language and Cognition, 7(2), 125–142. 10.1017/S1366728904001464
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728904001464 [Google Scholar]
  28. Montrul, S., & Bowles, M.
    (2009) Back to basics: Differential object marking under incomplete acquisition in Spanish heritage speakers. Bilingualism, 12(3), 363–383. 10.1017/S1366728909990071
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728909990071 [Google Scholar]
  29. Montrul, S., & Sánchez-Walker, N.
    (2013) Differential object marking in child and adult Spanish heritage speakers. Language Acquisition, 20(2), 109–132. 10.1080/10489223.2013.766741
     https://doi.org/10.1080/10489223.2013.766741 [Google Scholar]
  30. Pérez-Bazán, M. J.
    (2002) Predicting early bilingual development: Towards a probabilistic model of analysis. [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. University of Michigan.
  31. Polinsky, M., & Kagan, O.
    (2007) Heritage languages: In the ‘wild’ and in the classroom. Language and linguistics compass, 1(5), 368–395. 10.1111/j.1749‑818X.2007.00022.x
     https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-818X.2007.00022.x [Google Scholar]
  32. Polinsky, M., & Scontras, G.
    (2020) A roadmap for heritage language research. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 23(1), 50–55. 10.1017/S1366728919000555
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728919000555 [Google Scholar]
  33. Remedi, V.
    (2014) Creación de corpus de datos sobre estudio longitudinal de adquisición de lenguaje de una niña de la región central de Argentina. [Unpublished thesis, National University of Cordoba].
     [Google Scholar]
  34. Rodina, Y., Kupisch, T., Meir, N., Mitrofanova, N., Urek, O., & Westergaard, M.
    (2020) Internal and external factors in heritage language acquisition: evidence from heritage Russian in Israel, Germany, Norway, Latvia and the United Kingdom. Frontiers in Education, 51, 1–17. 10.3389/feduc.2020.00020
     https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2020.00020 [Google Scholar]
  35. Rodríguez-Mondoñedo, M.
    (2008) The acquisition of differential object marking in Spanish. Probus, 20(1), 111–145. 10.1515/PROBUS.2008.004
     https://doi.org/10.1515/PROBUS.2008.004 [Google Scholar]
  36. Silva-Corvalán, C.
    (1986) Bilingualism and language change: The extension of estar in Los Angeles Spanish. Language, 62(3), 587–608. 10.1353/lan.1986.0023
     https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.1986.0023 [Google Scholar]
  37. (1994) The gradual loss of mood distinctions in Los Angeles Spanish. Language variation and change, 6(3), 255–272. 10.1017/S095439450000168X
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S095439450000168X [Google Scholar]
  38. Ticio, E.
    (2015) Differential object marking in Spanish-English early bilinguals. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 5(1), 62–90. 10.1075/lab.5.1.03tic
     https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.5.1.03tic [Google Scholar]
  39. Ticio, E., & Avram, L.
    (2015) The acquisition of differential object marking in Spanish and Romanian: Semantic scales or semantic features?Revue Roumaine de Linguistique-Romanian Review of Linguistics, 60(4), 383–401.
     [Google Scholar]
  40. Tippets, I.
    (2011) Differential object marking: Quantitative evidence for underlying hierarchical constraints across Spanish dialects. InL. Ortiz-López (Ed.), Selected proceedings of the 13th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium (pp. 107–117). Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
     [Google Scholar]
  41. Torrego, E.
    (1998) The dependency of objects. MIT Press. 10.7551/mitpress/2337.001.0001
     https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/2337.001.0001 [Google Scholar]
  42. Weinreich, U., Herzog, M., & Labov, W.
    (1968) Empirical foundations for a theory of language change. InW. P. Lehmann & Y. Malkiel (Eds.), Directions for historical linguistics (pp. 97–195). University of Texas Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  43. Weissenrieder, M.
    (1990) Variable uses of the direct-object marker A. Hispania, 73(1), 223–231. 10.2307/343010
     https://doi.org/10.2307/343010 [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/lab.21001.req
Loading
Variation versus deviation
Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 13, 801 (2023); https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.21001.req
/content/journals/10.1075/lab.21001.req
/content/journals/10.1075/lab.21001.req
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): animacy; child heritage language; differential object marking; Spanish; variation

Most Cited

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error