Cover not available
Part of
On the Acquisition of the Syntax of Romance
Edited by Anna Gavarró
[Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 62] 2018
► pp. 187–214

Subject position in Spanish as a heritage language in the Netherlands: External and internal interface factors

| University of Amsterdam
| University of Amsterdam

This study investigates Spanish heritage speakers in the Netherlands concerning their knowledge of three factors influencing subject position in Spanish: verb type, focus and definiteness. The results of a scalar acceptability judgment task show that heritage speakers have monolingual-like knowledge of the effects of verb type and focus, but not of the effect of definiteness of the subject. We interpret the vulnerability of the definiteness factor as partial support for the second version of the Interface Hypothesis, which predicts the syntax-discourse/pragmatics interface to be particularly vulnerable compared to the syntax-semantics interface. The heritage speakers moreover overgeneralize postverbal subjects, a finding that we tentatively attribute to cross-linguistic influence from Dutch.

Keywords: heritage speakers, Spanish, subject position, word order, Interface Hypothesis, unaccusativity, focus, definiteness, Dutch, cross-linguistic influence
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The Interface Hypothesis
  • 3.Subject position in Spanish
  • 4.Previous research on word order patterns in monolingual and heritage Spanish
  • 5.Research questions and hypotheses
  • 6.Method
    • Participants
    • Task and procedure
    • Items
  • 7.Results
    • Monolingual controls
    • Heritage speakers
    • Individual differences
    • Item effects
  • 8.Discussion
  • 9.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 12 December 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lald.62.09osc
References
Alba, O.
(2004) Cómo hablamos los dominicanos: Un enfoque sociolingüístico. Santo Domingo: Grupo León Jimenes.Google Scholar
Bates, D., & Sarkar, D.
(2006) Lme4: Linear mixed-effects models using S4 classes. R package version 0.99875-8. < [URL] > Google Scholar
Belletti, A.
(1988) The case of unaccusatives. Linguistic Inquiry, 19(1), 1–34.Google Scholar
(2001) Inversion as focalization. In A. Hulk & J. Y. Pollock (Eds.), Subject inversion in Romance and the theory of Universal Grammar (pp. 60–90). Oxford: OUP.Google 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
Chomsky, N.
(1995) The minimalist program. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Cuza, A.
(2012) Crosslinguistic influence at the syntax proper: Crosslinguistic influence at the syntax proper: Interrogative subject–verb inversion in heritage Spanish. International Journal of Bilingualism, 17(1), 71–96.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
De Miguel Aparicio, E.
(1993) Construcciones ergativas e inversión en la lengua y la interlengua española. In J. M. Liceras (Ed.), La lingüística y el análisis de los sistemas no nativos (pp. 178–195). Ottawa: Dovehouse Editions.Google Scholar
De Prada Pérez, A.
(2010) Variation in subject expression in Western Romance. In S. Colina, A. Olarrea, & A. M. Carvalho (Eds.), Selected papers from the 39th Linguistics Symposium of Romance Languages (LSRL) (pp. 267–284). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
De Prada Pérez, A., & Pascual y Cabo, D.
(2012) Interface heritage speech across proficiencies: Unaccusativity, focus, and subject position in Spanish. In K. Geeslin & M. Díaz-Campos (Eds.), Selected proceedings of the 14th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium (pp. 308–318). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Domínguez, L.
(2007) The L2 acquisition of Spanish focus: A case of incomplete and divergent grammars. In S. Baauw, J. van Kampen, & M. Pinto (Eds.), The acquisition of Romance languages: Selected papers from The Romance Turn II (pp. 45–57). Utrecht: LOT.Google Scholar
Domínguez, L. & Arche, M. J.
(2008) Optionality in L2 grammars: the acquisition of SV/VS contrast in Spanish. In H. Chan, H. Jacob, & E. Kapia (Eds.), Proceedings of the 32nd annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (BUCLD 32) (pp. 96–107). Somerville: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Domínguez, L., & Arche, M. J.
(2014) Subject inversion in non-native Spanish. Lingua, 145(1), 243–265. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fernández Soriano, O.
(1993) Sobre el orden de palabras en español. Dicenda: Cuadernos de Filología Hispánica, 11, 113–152.Google Scholar
Gabriel, C.
(2010) On focus, prosody, and word order in Argentinean Spanish: A minimalist OT account. ReVEL, 4, 183–222.Google Scholar
Halekoh, U., & Højsgaard, S.
(2014) A kenward-roger approximation and parametric bootstrap methods for tests in linear mixed models–the R package pbkrtest. Journal of Statistical Software, 59(9), 1–30.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hertel, T. J.
(2003) Lexical and discourse factors in the second language acquisition of Spanish word order. Second Language Research, 19(4), 273–304.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hinch Nava, E.
(2007) Word order in bilingual Spanish: Convergence and intonation strategy. In J. Holmquist, A. Lorenzino & L. Sayahi (Eds.), Selected proceedings of the Third Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics (pp. 129–139). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Hoot, B.
(2012) Presentational focus in heritage and monolingual Spanish. (Doctoral dissertation). Chicago: University of Illinois at Chicago.Google Scholar
Hopp, H.
(2009) The syntax–discourse interface in near-native L2 acquisition: off-line and on-line performance. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 12, 463–483.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hulk, A. & Müller, N.
(2000) Bilingual first language acquisition at the interface between syntax and pragmatics. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 3(3), 227–244.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ivanov, I.
(2012) L2 acquisition of Bulgarian clitic-doubling: A test case for the Interface Hypothesis. Second Language Research, 28(3). 345–368.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Iverson, M., Kempchinsky, P., & Rothman, J.
(2008) Interface vulnerability and knowledge of the subjunctive/indicative distinction with negated epistemic predicates in L2 Spanish. Eurosla Yearbook, 8(1), 135–163.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kahane, H. & Kahane, R.
(1950) The position of the actor expression in colloquial Mexican Spanish. Language, 26(2), 236–263.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Laleko, O., & Polinsky, M.
(2016) Between syntax and discourse. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 6(4), 396–439.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lipski, J.M.
(1977) Preposed subjects in questions: Some considerations. Hispania, 60(1), 61–67.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
López Meirama, B.
(1997) La posición del sujeto en la cláusula monoactancial en español (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Universidade de Santiago de Compostela.Google Scholar
Lozano, C.
(2006) Focus and split-intransitivity: The acquisition of word order alternations in non-native Spanish. Second Language Research, 22(2), 145–187.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Montrul, S.
(2005) Second language acquisition and first language loss in adult early bilinguals: Exploring some differences and similarities. Second Language Research, 21(3), 199–249.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2006) On the bilingual competence of Spanish heritage speakers: Syntax, lexical-semantics and processing. International Journal of Bilingualism, 10(1), 37–69.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2008) Incomplete acquisition in Spanish heritage speakers: chronological age or interfaces vulnerability. In H. Chan, H. Jacob, & E. Kapia (eds), BUCLD 32: Proceedings of the 32nd annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 299–310). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla.Google Scholar
Muntendam, A.
(2009) Linguistic transfer in Andean Spanish: Syntax or pragmatics? (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Google Scholar
Ordóñez, F.
(1997) Word order and clause structure in Spanish and other Romance languages (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). The City University of New York Graduate Center.Google Scholar
Ordóñez, F., & Olarrea, A.
(2006) Microvariation in Caribbean/non Caribbean Spanish interrogatives. Probus, 18, 59–96.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Osch van, B., & Sleeman, P.
(2016) Spanish heritage speakers in the Netherlands: Linguistic patterns in the judgment and production of mood. International Journal of Bilingualism. :
https://doi.org/
Google Scholar
Osch van, B.. Hulk, A., Sleeman, P., & Aalberse, S.
(2017) Mood distinctions by Spanish heritage speakers in the Netherlands: a question of interfaces or variability? In K. Bellamy, M. Child, P. González, A. Muntendam, & M.C. Parafita Couto (Eds.), Multidisciplinary approaches to bilingualism in the Hispanic and Lusophone world (pp. 67–94). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Parafita Couto, M. C. P., Gathercole, V. C. M., & Stadthagen-González, H.
(2015) Interface strategies in monolingual and end-state L2 Spanish grammars are not that different. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1525, 1–17.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Perlmutter, D. M.
(1978) Impersonal passives and the unaccusative hypothesis. Annual meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 4, 157–190.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Platzack, C.
(2001) The vulnerable C-domain. Brain and Language, 77(3): 364–377.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
R Development Core Team
(2017) R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. [URL]Google Scholar
Rivas, J.
(2008) La posición del sujeto en las construcciones monoactanciales del español: Una aproximación funcional. Hispania, 91(4), 897–912.Google Scholar
Roggia, A. B.
(2011) Unaccusativity and word order in Mexican Spanish: An examination of syntactic interfaces and the split intransitivity hierarchy (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). The Pennsylvania State University.Google Scholar
Rosen, C.
(1984) The interface between semantic roles and initial grammatical relations. In D. Perlmutter & C. Rosen (Eds.) Studies in relational grammar 2 (pp. 38–77). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Rothman, J.
(2008) How pragmatically odd! Interface delays and pronominal subject distribution in L2 Spanish. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 1(2), 317–340.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sánchez-Alvarado, C
(2016) Subject position in L2 Spanish. Poster session presented at Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL) 46, Stony Brook University (SUNY).Google Scholar
Serratrice, L., Sorace, A., & Paoli, S.
(2004) Crosslinguistic influence at the syntax– pragmatics interface, subjects and objects in English–Italian bilingual and monolingual acquisition. Bilingualism, Language and Cognition, 7, 183–206.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Silva-Corvalán, C.
(2001) Sociolingüística y pragmática del español. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Slabakova, R., Rothman, J. & Kempchinsky, P.
(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.
(2000) Gradients in auxiliary selection with intransitive verbs. Language, 76, 859–890.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2004) Gradience at the lexicon-syntax interface: evidence from auxiliary selection and implications for unaccusativity. In A. Alexiadou, E. Anagnostopoulou, & M. Everaert (Eds.), The unaccusativity puzzle: Explorations of the syntax-lexicon interface (pp. 243–268) Oxford: OUP.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(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, 339–368.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sorace, A., & Serratrice, L.
(2009) Internal and external interfaces in bilingual language development: Beyond structural overlap. International Journal of Bilingualism, 13(2), 195–210.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tsimpli, I. M., & Sorace, A.
(2006) Differentiating interfaces: L2 performance in syntax–semantics and syntax–discourse phenomena. In D. Bamman, T. Magnitskaia, & C. Zaller (Eds.), BUCLD 30: Proceedings of the 30th annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 653–664). Somerville, 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
Villa-García, J. & Suárez-Palma, I.
(2016) Early null and overt subjects in the Spanish of simultaneous English-Spanish bilinguals and crosslinguistic influence. Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics (RESLA/SJAL) 29(2), 350–395.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zapata, G.C., Sánchez, L., & Toribio, A. J.
(2005) Contact and contracting Spanish. International Journal of Bilingualism, 9(3–4), 377–395.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zubizarreta, M. L.
(1998) Prosody, focus, and word order. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 5 other publications

Hoot, Bradley & Tania Leal
2023. Resilience and vulnerability of discourse-conditioned word order in heritage Spanish. Applied Psycholinguistics 44:5 ► pp. 668 ff. DOI logo
Laleko, Oksana
2021. Discourse and Information Structure in Heritage Languages. In The Cambridge Handbook of Heritage Languages and Linguistics, ► pp. 691 ff. DOI logo
Laleko, Oksana
2022. Word order and information structure in heritage and L2 Russian: Focus and unaccusativity effects in subject inversion. International Journal of Bilingualism 26:6 ► pp. 749 ff. DOI logo
Rinke, Esther, Cristina Flores, Priscila Oliveira & Liliana Correia
2024. An experimental study on the loss of VS order in monolingual and bilingual speakers of Brazilian Portuguese. Probus 0:0 DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2021. Grammatical Aspects of Heritage Languages. In The Cambridge Handbook of Heritage Languages and Linguistics, ► pp. 579 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 22 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.