Adverbial adventures: adult heritage Spanish speakers' placement of adverbs by semantic class
Author ORCID Identifier
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8895-1243
Document Type
Paper Presentation
Presenter Language
English
Research Area
Bilingualism and Multilingualism, Syntax, Theoretical linguistics
Location
MBSC Dodge Room 302
Start Date
18-10-2024 12:30 PM
End Date
18-10-2024 1:00 PM
Abstract
Zagona (2002) identifies five classes of Spanish VP-adverbs and their syntactic distribution: Time adverbs (ayer) occupy any position (see (1), where x represents possible adverb location); Place adverbs (aquí) occupy any position, but their use in SVAdvO is restricted; Degree adverbs (casi) only appear in SAdvVO; and Manner (bien) and Quantity (mucho) adverbs only appear post-verbally. While this is a welcome theoretical account, it has not been fully examined in empirical studies, and research on adverb placement in Spanish heritage speakers (HSs) in general is limited. Camacho and Kirova (2018) found that adult HSs accepted adverbs both pre- and post-verbally, but preferred pre-verbal (SAdvVO). Gómez Alzate et al. (2023) examined frequency (time) and manner adverbs in heritage and monolingual Spanish children, and, related to the present study, found a preference for SVOAdv with manner adverbs in both populations.
(1) x – Subj – x – V – x – Obj – x (Zagona, 2002, p. 163)
Here we examine the distribution of place, degree, manner, and quantity adverbs (Table 1) in the Spanish of English-dominant adult HSs and a group of Spanish-dominant bilinguals. Participants (n=50) completed a Sentence Construction Task (SCT), an Acceptability Judgment Task (AJT), a standard proficiency measure, and the Bilingual Language Profile (Birdsong et al., 2012).
In the SCT, all groups most frequently place adverbs sentence-finally (SVOAdv), followed by SAdvVO, then SVAdvO, with minimal AdvSVO (Fig. 1). As proficiency increases, HSs are more likely to use SVOAdv and less likely to use SVAdvO. Across classes (Figs. 2-3), degree adverbs are placed most frequently in SAdvVO, while place and manner adverbs appear most in SVOAdv. Quantity adverbs appear most in SVOAdv for HSs, but in SVAdvO for Spanish-dominant participants. AJT results (Figs. 4-7) generally reflect the same patterns. All mean group ratings are highest in SAdvVO for degree adverbs, in SVOAdv for place and manner adverbs, and vary between SVAdvO and SVOAdv for quantity adverbs.
These results will be discussed in further detail, taking into consideration individual variation by participant and adverb, and considering the implications of the latter on the proposed classifications. Ultimately, our dataset is fairly consistent with Zagona (2002), but suggests these patterns emerge as tendencies, rather than absolutes, in the bilingual grammar.
Adverbial adventures: adult heritage Spanish speakers' placement of adverbs by semantic class
MBSC Dodge Room 302
Zagona (2002) identifies five classes of Spanish VP-adverbs and their syntactic distribution: Time adverbs (ayer) occupy any position (see (1), where x represents possible adverb location); Place adverbs (aquí) occupy any position, but their use in SVAdvO is restricted; Degree adverbs (casi) only appear in SAdvVO; and Manner (bien) and Quantity (mucho) adverbs only appear post-verbally. While this is a welcome theoretical account, it has not been fully examined in empirical studies, and research on adverb placement in Spanish heritage speakers (HSs) in general is limited. Camacho and Kirova (2018) found that adult HSs accepted adverbs both pre- and post-verbally, but preferred pre-verbal (SAdvVO). Gómez Alzate et al. (2023) examined frequency (time) and manner adverbs in heritage and monolingual Spanish children, and, related to the present study, found a preference for SVOAdv with manner adverbs in both populations.
(1) x – Subj – x – V – x – Obj – x (Zagona, 2002, p. 163)
Here we examine the distribution of place, degree, manner, and quantity adverbs (Table 1) in the Spanish of English-dominant adult HSs and a group of Spanish-dominant bilinguals. Participants (n=50) completed a Sentence Construction Task (SCT), an Acceptability Judgment Task (AJT), a standard proficiency measure, and the Bilingual Language Profile (Birdsong et al., 2012).
In the SCT, all groups most frequently place adverbs sentence-finally (SVOAdv), followed by SAdvVO, then SVAdvO, with minimal AdvSVO (Fig. 1). As proficiency increases, HSs are more likely to use SVOAdv and less likely to use SVAdvO. Across classes (Figs. 2-3), degree adverbs are placed most frequently in SAdvVO, while place and manner adverbs appear most in SVOAdv. Quantity adverbs appear most in SVOAdv for HSs, but in SVAdvO for Spanish-dominant participants. AJT results (Figs. 4-7) generally reflect the same patterns. All mean group ratings are highest in SAdvVO for degree adverbs, in SVOAdv for place and manner adverbs, and vary between SVAdvO and SVOAdv for quantity adverbs.
These results will be discussed in further detail, taking into consideration individual variation by participant and adverb, and considering the implications of the latter on the proposed classifications. Ultimately, our dataset is fairly consistent with Zagona (2002), but suggests these patterns emerge as tendencies, rather than absolutes, in the bilingual grammar.