Cover not available
Part of
Complement Clauses in Portuguese: Syntax and acquisition
Edited by Ana Lúcia Santos and Anabela Gonçalves
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 17] 2018
► pp. 321–360

Inflected infinitives in L2 Portuguese

| CLUNL, FCSH, NOVA University of Lisbon

This study investigates the acquisition of morphosyntactic and interpretative properties of the Portuguese inflected infinitive by Chinese and Spanish speakers, using three experimental tasks. Assuming a Full Access approach (Schwartz & Sprouse, 1996) and the Interface Hypothesis (Sorace, 2011), we predict that full acquisition of the morphosyntactic properties is possible, albeit showing L1 effects, and that interpretative properties develop later than narrow syntactic properties. Both predictions are supported. Our findings show that the advanced learners have largely acquired the relevant morphosyntactic properties, although there is evidence of developmental delays, particularly in the Spanish group. Moreover, both advanced groups performed non-targetlike regarding the interpretation of overt subjects; however, the Spanish group showed an advantage over the Chinese group with null subjects.

Keywords: inflected infinitive, European Portuguese, L2 acquisition, Full Access, Interface Hypothesis
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The inflected infinitive
  • 3.The acquisition of the inflected infinitive
    • 3.1Previous studies
    • 3.2Goals of the present study
  • 4.The current study
    • 4.1Tasks
      • 4.1.1The morphological recognition task
      • 4.1.2The context task
      • 4.1.3The interpretation task
    • 4.2Participants
    • 4.3Hypotheses
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1The morphological recognition task
    • 5.2The context task
    • 5.3The interpretation task
  • 6.Discussion and conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 16 August 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.17.11mad
References
Ambar, M.
(1998) Inflected infinitives revisited: Genericity and single event. The Canadian Journal of Linguistics/La Revue Canadienne de Linguistique, 43, 5–36.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Belletti, A., Bennati, E., & Sorace, A.
(2007) Theoretical and developmental issues in the syntax of subjects: Evidence from near-native Italian. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 25, 657–689. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Carminati, M.
(2002) The processing of Italian subject pronouns (Unpublished PhD dissertation). University of Massachusetts.
Chomsky, N.
(1995) The minimalist program. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Cowper, E.
(2002) Finiteness (Unpublished manuscript). University of Toronto. Retrieved from [URL]
Epstein, S., Flynn, S., & Martohardjono, G.
(1996) Second language acquisition: Theoretical and experimental issues in contemporary research. Brain and Behavioral Sciences, 19, 677–758. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gonçalves, A., Santos, A. L., & Duarte, I.
(2014) (Pseudo-)inflected infinitives and control as Agree. In K. Lahousse & S. Marzo (Eds.), Selected papers from Going Romance Leuven 2012 (pp. 161–180). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Hawkins, R., & Chan, C.
(1997) The partial availability of Universal Grammar in second language acquisition: The ‘failed functional features hypothesis’. Second Language Research, 13, 187–226. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hawkins, R., & Hattori, H.
(2006) Interpretation of English multiple wh-questions by Japanese speakers: A missing uninterpretable feature account. Second Language Research, 22(3), 269–301. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hernanz Carbó, M. L.
(1982) El infinitivo en español. Bellaterra: Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Departamento de Filología Hispánica.Google Scholar
Hu, J., Pan, H., & Xu, L.
(2001) Is there a finite vs nonfinite distinction in Chinese?. Linguistics, 39(6), 1117–1148.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Huang, C-T. J.
(1984) On the distribution and reference of empty pronouns. Linguistic Inquiry, 15(4), 531–574.Google Scholar
(1989) Pro-drop in Chinese: A generalized control theory. In O. Jaeggli & K. Safir (Eds.), The null subject parameter (pp. 185–214). Dordrecht: Kluwer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Iverson, M., & Rothman, J.
(2008) The syntax-semantics interface in L2 acquisition: genericity and inflected infinitive complements in non-native Portuguese. In J. Bruhn de Garavito & E. Valenzuela (Eds.), Selected proceedings of the 10th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium (pp. 78–92). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Landau, I.
(2004) The scale of finiteness and the calculus of control. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 22, 811–877. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lardiere, D.
(2006) Establishing ultimate attainment in a particular second language grammar. In Z. H. Han & T. Odlin (Eds.), Studies of fossilization in second language acquisition (pp. 35–55). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Long, M. H.
(1990) Maturational constraints on language development. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 12(3), 251–285. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Madeira, A.
(1994) On the Portuguese inflected infinitive. In G. Borgato (Ed.), Teoria del linguaggio e analisi linguistica: XX Incontro di Grammatica Generativa (pp. 289–314). Padova: Unipress.Google Scholar
Margaza, P., & Bel, A.
(2006) Null subjects at the syntax-pragmatics interface: Evidence from Spanish interlanguage of Greek speakers. In M. G. O’Brien, C. Shea, & J. Archibald (Eds.), Selected proceedings of GASLA 2006 (pp. 88–97). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Mensching, G.
(2000) Infinitive constructions with specified subjects: A syntactic analysis of the Romance languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Modesto, M.
(2010) What Brazilian Portuguese says about control: Remarks on Boeckx & Hornstein. Syntax, 13, 78–96. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Montrul, S., & Rodríguez Louro, C.
(2006) Beyond the syntax of the null subject parameter: A look at the discourse-pragmatic distribution of null and overt subjects by L2 learners of Spanish. In V. Torrens & L. Escobar (Eds.), The acquisition of syntax in Romance languages (pp. 401–418). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pires, A.
(2006) The minimalist syntax of defective domains: Gerunds and infinitives. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pires, A., & Rothman, J.
(2009) Acquisition of Brazilian Portuguese in late childhood: implications for syntactic theory and language change. In A. Pires & J. Rothman (Eds.), Minimalist inquiries into child and adult language acquisition: Case studies across Portuguese (pp. 129–154). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pires, A., Rothman, J., & Santos, A. L.
(2011) L1 acquisition across Portuguese dialects: Modular and interdisciplinary interfaces as sources of explanation. Lingua, 121, 605–622. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Quícoli, C.
(1996) Inflection and parametric variation: Portuguese vs. Spanish. In R. Freidin (Ed.), Current issues in comparative grammar (pp. 46–80). Dordrecht: Kluwer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Raposo, E.
(1987) Case theory and Infl-to-Comp: The inflected infinitive in European Portuguese. Linguistic Inquiry, 18, 85–109.Google Scholar
Rothman, J.
(2009) Knowledge of A/A′-dependencies on subject extraction with two types of infinitives in non-native Portuguese adult bilingualism. International Journal of Bilingualism, 13(1), 111–140. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2015) Linguistic and cognitive motivations for the Typological Primacy Model (TPM) of third language (L3) transfer: Timing of acquisition and proficiency considered. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 18(2), 179–190. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rothman, J., & Iverson, M.
(2007) To inflect or not to inflect is the question indeed: infinitives in non-native Portuguese. Journal of Portuguese Linguistics, 6(2), 5–30. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schachter, J.
(1990) On the issue of completeness in second language acquisition. Second Language Research, 6(2), 93–124. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schwartz, B., & Sprouse, R.
(1996) L2 cognitive states and the full transfer/full access model. Second Language Research, 12(1), 40–72. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Selinker, L.
(1972) Interlanguage. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 10(3), 209–231. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sheehan, M.
(2014) Portuguese, Russian and the theory of control. In H. Huang, E. Poole, & A. Rysling (Eds.), Proceedings of the 43rd annual meeting of the North East Linguistic Society 43 (NELS 43) (Vol. 2, pp. 115–126).Google Scholar
Sitaridou, I.
(2002) The synchrony and diachrony of Romance infinitives with nominative subjects (Unpublished PhD dissertation). University of Manchester.
Skydsgaard, S.
(1977) La combinatoria sintáctica del infinitivo español. Madrid: Editorial Castalia.Google Scholar
Slabakova, R.
(2006) Is there a critical period for semantics? Second Language Research, 22(3), 302–338. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2013) What is easy and what is hard in second language acquisition: a generative perspective. In M. P. García Mayo, M. Gutierrez-Mangado, & M. Martínez Adrián (Eds.), Contemporary approaches to second language acquisition (pp. 5–28). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Slabakova, R., Kempchinsky, P., & Rothman, J.
(2012) Clitic-doubled left dislocation and focus fronting in L2 Spanish: A case of successful acquisition at the syntax-discourse interface. Second Language Research, 28(3), 319–343. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sorace, A.
(2011) Pinning down the concept of "interface" in bilingualism. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 1(1), 1–33. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sorace, A., & Filiaci, F.
(2006) Anaphora resolution in near-native speakers of Italian. Second Language Research, 22(3), 339–368. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Torrego, E.
(1998) Nominative subjects and pro-drop INFL. Syntax, 1(2), 206–219. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tsimpli, I., & Dimitrakopoulou, M.
(2007) The interpretability hypothesis: evidence from wh-interrogatives in second language acquisition. Second Language Research, 23(2), 215–242. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tsimpli, I., & Mastropavlou, M.
(2007) Feature interpretability in L2 acquisition and SLI: Greek clitics and determiners. In J. Liceras, H. Zobl, & H. Goodluck (Eds.), The role of formal features in second language acquisition (pp. 143–183). New York, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Tsimpli, I., & Sorace, A.
(2006) Differentiating interfaces: L2 performance in syntax-semantics and syntax-discourse phenomena. In D. Bamman, T. Magnitskaia, & C. Zaller (Eds.), Proceedings of the 30th annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (BUCLD 30) (pp. 653–664). Boston, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Tsimpli, I., Sorace, A., Heycock, C., & Filiaci, F.
(2004) First language attrition and syntactic subjects: A study of Greek and Italian near-native speakers of English. International Journal of Bilingualism, 8(3), 257–277. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
White, L.
(2003) Second language acquisition and universal grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zheng, Y.
(2014) Acquisition of null subjects in European Portuguese by Chinese learners – Syntax and discourse. In M. Kohlberger, K. Bellamy, & E. Dutton (Eds.), Proceedings of the 22nd Conference of the Student Organization of Linguistics in Europe (ConSOLE XXII) (pp. 231–254). Leiden: Leiden University Centre for Linguistics.Google Scholar