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Article published In:
Mental representations in receptive multilingualism
Edited by Bonnie C. Holmes and Michael T. Putnam
[Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 10:3] 2020
► pp. 315–350

What you hear is (not always) what you get

Subjects and verbs among receptive Palenquero-Spanish bilinguals

| The Pennsylvania State University

The present study offers data from native Spanish speakers who possess receptive competence in Palenquero, a Spanish-lexified creole spoken in the Afro-Colombian village of San Basilio de Palenque. Until recently Palenquero was endangered, but language revitalization activities are now underway in Palenque. These efforts are resulting in young L2 Palenquero speakers and receptive bilinguals, who do not actively use the language but who are exposed to it within the community and through occasional classes. This study, based on experimental research conducted in Palenque, examines receptive bilinguals' grasp of Palenquero subject-verb structures as a demonstration of how the divergence between active and receptive bilinguals' grammars can go undetected within the speech community. Receptive bilinguals sometimes produce referential null subjects instead of overt pronouns even in the absence of other disambiguating cues. Receptive bilinguals also do not systematically differentiate Palenquero pre-verbal particles, in a fashion suggestive of a maximally simplified subject-verb configuration.

Keywords: Palenquero language, receptive bilinguals, null subjects
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • The Palenquero language
  • Overview of Palenquero speakers
  • Verb systems: Palenquero vs. Spanish
  • Null subjects: Palenquero vs. Spanish
    • Null subjects in Spanish
    • Null subjects in Palenquero
  • Interactive data collection in Palenque
  • First experiment: Speeded translation
    • Participants
    • Materials
    • Method
    • Results: Spanish to Palenquero null subject expression
    • Results: Palenquero-to-Spanish null subject expression
    • Replication with natural voices
    • Results: Spanish to Palenquero verb phrases
    • Results: Palenquero to Spanish verb phrases
  • Second experiment: Memory-loaded repetition
    • Participants
    • Materials
    • Procedure
    • Results: Null subjects
    • Results: Verb phrases
  • General discussion
    • Palenquero verb phrase
    • Palenquero null subjects
    • More on Palenquero and Spanish subject-verb structures
  • Summary: What you hear isn’t always what you get
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 13 November 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.17083.lip
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