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L2 acquisition of Spanish DPs: The status of grammatical features

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Joyce Bruhn de Garavito at Western University
Joyce Bruhn de Garavito
Lydia White at McGill University
Lydia White
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Current research on the nature of interlanguage (IL) representation focuses on properties of functional categories (Det, Comp, Infl, etc.), investigating the extent to which IL grammars diverge from the second language (L2). There are a number of claims that IL grammars are in some sense defective in the functional domain. Included in this category are proposals that learners are restricted to Li categories, features or feature values (Hawkins 1998a, b; Hawkins and Chan 1997; Liceras et al. 1997; Smith and Tsimpli 1995; Tsimpli and Roussou 1991), such that certain L2 functional properties are not attainable beyond the critical period. Even stronger are claims that IL representations are permanently impaired at least as far as certain properties of functional categories are concerned (Beck 1998; Eubank et al. 1997; Eubank and Grace 1998). Such claims for impaired IL grammars contrast with proposals that IL grammars are not defective, with L2 functional categories, features and feature values being in principle attainable (e.g. Duffield and White 1999; Epstein, Flynn and Martohardjono 1996; Schwartz and Sprouse 1994, 1996; White 1996). Previous proposals have concentrated largely on properties of clausal projections (IP and CP). In this paper, we examine the L2 acquisition of Spanish DPs, arguing against the position that representation of functional categories, features or feature values is restricted to LI properties or is otherwise defective. At the same time, we will show that there are indeed some problems associated with acquiring gender. We will suggest that these problems cannot be attributed to presence or absence of gender in the L1 and that they are not necessarily indicative of a representational deficit.
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... Within the minimalist framework (Chomsky, 1995), it is motivated by feature checking between the interpretable gender feature of the noun and the uninterpretable gender feature on the elements of the agreeing categories (e.g., determiners, adjectives, and pronouns; Carstens, 2000). Whether applied at the lexical or at the computational level, gender features prominently amongst the categories that appear to be challenging for adult learners (e.g., Bruhn de Garavito & White, 2002;Carroll, 1989;Franceschina, 2005;Tsimpli et al., 2005). TA B L E 1 Suffix-gender correspondences for prototypical endings in Greek. ...
... Syntactic mismatching is assumed to cause a relative failure in establishing agreement among the members of the NP, with learners, for example, producing (2a) or (2b), in which the determiner and the adjective do not match with the noun. Such a failure has been evinced either in offline (e.g., Agathopoulou et al., 2008;Bruhn de Garavito & White, 2002;Tsimpli et al., 2005) or online datasets (e.g., Dussias et al., 2013;Hopp & Lemmerth, 2018;Spino, 2022). Even though the results of these studies are inconclusive, the overall consensus suggests that L2 learners are capable of acquiring grammatical gender even when their L1 lacks such features. ...
... Consistent with prior research (e.g., Bruhn de Garavito & White, 2002;Chondrogianni, 2008;Tsimpli et al., 2005;White et al., 2004), our findings indicate that intermediate learners of Greek demonstrate significantly higher accuracy in establishing gender agreement in Det-N configurations, while errors are more prevalent in Adj-N dependencies within the corpus sample. Furthermore, our findings are consistent with those of Agathopoulou et al. (2008) regarding the influence of syncretism on patterns of phonological alignment. ...
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Article
Full-text available
  • Aug 2024
The article introduces triangulation to converge evidence from corpus and experimental data, by means of two case studies in second language (L2) learners of Greek. The first case study investigates the acquisition of gender agreement, while the second probes the development of relative clauses. In both studies, findings from the corpus are tested against online experimentation using eye-tracking and self-paced reading tasks, a combination that is scarce in research implementing triangulation. The findings suggest that methodological convergence yields both congruous and incongruous evidence. However, both types of evidence contribute to a nuanced understanding of the linguistic phenomena under study, as well as the different perspectives from which they are approached. The article concludes that such an approach to triangulation can significantly contribute to enhancing the reliability and validity of the findings, provided that methodological convergence has been achieved at the design level of the study.
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... In this line, L2 learners of Spanish tend to operate with a default value, that is, they overgeneralize the masculine forms, so that when the gender value is not specified, the masculine is always the syntactic value assigned by default (Corbett & Fraser, 2002). However, this behavior tends to disappear as their level of proficiency increases (Bruhn de Garavito & White, 2002;White et al., 2004). Such a persistent problem has often been the focus of the maturational constraints debate, leading adherents of the CPH and, most specifically, proponents of a representational deficit account, to argue that some linguistic features that are not instantiated in the L1 cannot be fully attained if acquired after puberty. ...
... Results from the quantitative analysis revealed that the L2 learners who did not establish a default value were more proficient and had a higher linguistic aptitude than the rest. This is line with previous studies (Bruhn de Garavito & White, 2002;White et al., 2004) that have found that as proficiency increases, the use of default gender decreases. ...
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Book
  • Feb 2025
Adult second language (L2) acquisition differs enormously from first language (L1) acquisition. Such a divergence results in adult L2 learners not being able to attain a native-like competence in their L2. Grammatical gender has been regarded as a complex linguistic feature, particularly to L2 learners whose L1 lacks this property. Some accounts maintain that after a maturationally constrained period that ends around puberty, learners cannot change the underlying representation of their L1 system, and as a result, some features become inaccessible (RDH-Franceschina, 2001; Hawkins & Chan, 1997). In contrast, other approaches contend that the access to Universal Grammar (UG) is not constrained, so the linguistic system of high-proficient learners is indistinguishable from the one in L2 native-speakers (MSIH-Lardiere, 1998a; Lardiere, 1998b; Prévost & White, 2000). Yet, little is known about how grammatical gender at bare noun production facilitates or constraints processing in an L2. This study, therefore, aims to test these two models and examine the role of proficiency and language aptitude on adult L2 processing. Three groups of participants —two groups of advanced English-speaking learners of Spanish split up in prepubescent and postpubescent learners, and a control group of Spanish monolinguals— were tested on the picture word interference (PWI) paradigm and the picture naming task (PNT). Data from comparisons among response latencies on gender congruent and gender incongruent pairs were gathered so as to look at gender facilitation effects. Results revealed that some late L2 learners can process gender in a native-like manner, for they showed a similar facilitation effect to the native-speakers. In addition, the late L2 learners with higher proficiency and higher aptitude showed a greater gender facilitation effect. These findings show that adult learners can still develop processing patterns similar to the ones exhibited by native speakers, which seems to suggest that the access to the universal principles that allows language development is still available after puberty.
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... Nevertheless, and unlike their younger counterparts who acquire this grammatical category as early as three years old (Mariscal, 2009;Pérez-Pereira, 1991), grammatical gender is a challenging feature for adult L2 learners (see, among others, Alarcón, 2011;Carroll, 1989;Franceschina, 2001;Grüter et al., 2012;Hopp, 2012Hopp, , 2016Montrul et al., 2008;Sabourin et al., 2006). In particular, the L2 literature concurs that persistent gender errors in the L2 are more representative of failure to assign L2 words to the target-like gender category, or gender assignment, rather than failure to acquire abstract gender features in their L2 grammars (de Garavito and White, 2002;Grüter et al., 2012;Hopp, 2012Hopp, , 2016Kirova and Camacho, 2021;Montrul et al., 2008;White et al., 2004). ...
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Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 2025
  • SECOND LANG RES
The present study investigates how English learners of Spanish compute gender agreement in Spanish–English asymmetrical switches (i.e. el key vs. la key ‘the.masc/fem key’). Twenty-six English learners of Spanish at intermediate-to-advanced second language (L2) proficiency completed a forced-choice elicitation task involving two codeswitching environments: Spanish determiner–English noun switches (Task 1) and English–Spanish switched copula constructions (Task 2). English nouns occurring in these codeswitching environments are controlled for semantic gender in the case of human nouns and for the grammatical gender of the Spanish translation equivalent in the case of inanimate nouns. The study also explores whether L2 proficiency and codeswitching experience influence L2 learners’ gender decisions in codeswitching. Gender agreement was almost categorical with human nouns whereby female nouns are feminine and male nouns are masculine. A mixed-effects logistic regression analysis further revealed that participants were more likely to apply masculine gender to inanimate nouns in both tasks, while the majority of the participants performed below chance with feminine gender. We stress the importance of separating animate from inanimate nouns in experimental L2 research. We argue that L2 learners’ preference for masculine gender in codeswitching is a reflex of a probabilistic default gender driven by the L2 grammar, rather than evidence for the retrieval of the grammatical gender of the translation equivalent.
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... • ¿Se asigna el género por defecto? Se usará el masculino por defecto como se ha comprobado en otras investigaciones lingüísticas; (Bruhn de Garavito y White, 2002;Harris, 1991). ...
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Article
Full-text available
  • Dec 2024
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Article
Full-text available
  • Jul 2024
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... Although child HS and L2L often exhibit varying degrees of optionality in their production and comprehension of gender agreement morphology, research has consistently revealed patterns in their variation. Across studies using experimental methods and corpus data, child HS are more accurate in gender agreement with masculine than feminine nouns (Anderson, 1999;Cuza and Pérez-Tattam, 2016;Goebel-Mahrle and Shin, 2020;Martinez-Nieto and Restrepo, 2022), with canonical than non-canonical nouns (Bruhn De Garavito and White, 2002;Shin et al., 2019;Goebel-Mahrle and Shin, 2020), and with lexical determiner phrases than with direct object clitics (Goebel-Mahrle and Shin, 2020). That child bilinguals favor the masculine over feminine gender and are more accurate with canonical nouns is consistent with research on adult HS and L2L (McCarthy, 2008;Montrul et al., 2008Alarcón, 2011Alarcón, , 2020Alarcón, , 2021Grüter et al., 2012). ...
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Article
Full-text available
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The acquisition of grammatical gender in child and adult heritage speakers of Spanish: Beyond the source of differences
Chapter
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Gender as a morphosyntactic feature is arguably “an endlessly fascinating linguistic category” (Corbett 2014: 1). One may even say it is among “the most puzzling of the grammatical categories” (Corbett 1991: 1) that has raised probing questions from various theoretical and applied perspectives. Most languages display semantic and/or formal gender systems with various degrees of opacity and complexity, and even closely related languages present distinct differences, creating difficulties for second language learners. The first three chapters of this volume present critical reviews in three different areas – gender assignment in mixed noun phrases, subtle gentle biases and the gender acquisition in child and adult heritage speakers of Spanish – while the next six chapters present new empirical evidence in the acquisition of gender by bilingual children, adult L2/L3 learners and heritage speakers of various languages such as Italian, German, Dutch or Mandarin-Italian.
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languages-08-00018-v4 (1)
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Article
Full-text available
  • Sep 2024
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