<p>This study examines the interpretation and production of inalienable
possession among heritage speakers and L2 learners of Spanish.
Inalienable possession lies at the syntax-semantics interface and has
previously been found to be challenging among bilingual populations (Giancaspro
& Sánchez, 2019; Montrul & Ionin, 2010, 2012; Pérez-Leroux et al.,
2002). In particular, this study explores the extent to which Spanish heritage
speakers and L2 learners exhibit knowledge of Spanish inalienable possession
with pronominal verbs requiring the use of the clitic <i>se</i>. Results from
an Elicited Production Task and a Contextualized Preference Task administered
online showed that the L2 learners followed a distinct pattern of response compared
to the native speakers in the production and interpretation of inalienable
possession. This pattern was characterized by the preference of possessive
determiners over definite determiners. Heritage speakers, on the contrary, were
not found to differ from the native speakers of Spanish. They behaved similarly
to the control group as they followed the continuum that emerged for inalienable
possession. That is, both groups were more accepting of definite determiners,
while they showed less preference for structures with possessive determiners. The
findings are discussed in terms of current debates on the
role of factors involved in language acquisition such as maturational issues,
learning experience, patterns of language exposure and usage, cross-linguistic influence,
and the grammatical structure itself.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:purdue.edu/oai:figshare.com:article/14485191 |
| Date | 27 April 2021 |
| Creators | Laura M Solano Escobar (10701156) |
| Source Sets | Purdue University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis |
| Rights | CC BY 4.0 |
| Relation | https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/THE_INTERPRETATION_AND_PRODUCTION_OF_INALIENABLE_POSSESSION_IN_L2_AND_HERITAGE_SPANISH/14485191 |
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