Exploring the lexical aspect among heritage speakers of Brazilian Portuguese
Author ORCID Identifier
Document Type
Paper Presentation
Presenter Language
English
Research Area
Bilingualism and multilingualism
Location
MBSC Dodge Room 302
Start Date
19-10-2024 12:30 PM
End Date
19-10-2024 1:00 PM
Abstract
This pilot study aims to analyze how heritage speakers of Brazilian Portuguese (BP) interpret the lexical aspect of different verbs in BP and to verify whether their judgments in a grammatical judgement task are the same as those of monolingual speakers. Since lexical aspect is particular to each language, and verbs and predicates may present different classifications, the incongruence in judgments may be the result of influence of the dominant language or other factors (Cuza & Pérez-Tattam, 2016). This study seeks to answer whether 1) heritage speakers acquire the lexical aspect of stative, activity, achievement, and accomplishment verbs in the same way monolinguals do, and 2) if first- and second-generation heritage speakers behave differently. Following previous studies on the lexical aspect (Vendler, 1967; Dowty, 1979; Rappaport-Hovav, 2008) and Oliveira and Amaral’s (2020) classification for stative verbs in BP, our pilot study evaluated the judgements of two heritage speakers with different profiles through two one-on-one elicitation sessions to verify whether heritage speakers present the same judgments as native speakers on the lexical aspect of state (e.g., saber ‘to know’), activity (e.g., brincar ‘to play’), achievement (e.g., amadurecer ‘to ripen’), and accomplishment verbs (e.g., sair ‘to leave’). To compare the results obtained, the same tasks were conducted with two native speakers of Portuguese as a control group. Our preliminary results indicate that heritage speakers 1) present different judgments in comparison to native speakers depending on the type of verb, specifically stative verbs, and 2) 1st and 2nd generation participants behave differently. Our results corroborate with the thesis that speakers of heritage languages present influence of the dominant language in their judgments. However, it is important to consider the different profiles of these speakers, as there is a wide range of competence according to their history with the heritage language, the community in which they live and their translinguistic influences (Rothman, 2009). For future research, it would be important to replicate this pilot study with more participants and include more tests for the inconsistencies found, especially for the stative verbs that accept the progressive in Portuguese.
Exploring the lexical aspect among heritage speakers of Brazilian Portuguese
MBSC Dodge Room 302
This pilot study aims to analyze how heritage speakers of Brazilian Portuguese (BP) interpret the lexical aspect of different verbs in BP and to verify whether their judgments in a grammatical judgement task are the same as those of monolingual speakers. Since lexical aspect is particular to each language, and verbs and predicates may present different classifications, the incongruence in judgments may be the result of influence of the dominant language or other factors (Cuza & Pérez-Tattam, 2016). This study seeks to answer whether 1) heritage speakers acquire the lexical aspect of stative, activity, achievement, and accomplishment verbs in the same way monolinguals do, and 2) if first- and second-generation heritage speakers behave differently. Following previous studies on the lexical aspect (Vendler, 1967; Dowty, 1979; Rappaport-Hovav, 2008) and Oliveira and Amaral’s (2020) classification for stative verbs in BP, our pilot study evaluated the judgements of two heritage speakers with different profiles through two one-on-one elicitation sessions to verify whether heritage speakers present the same judgments as native speakers on the lexical aspect of state (e.g., saber ‘to know’), activity (e.g., brincar ‘to play’), achievement (e.g., amadurecer ‘to ripen’), and accomplishment verbs (e.g., sair ‘to leave’). To compare the results obtained, the same tasks were conducted with two native speakers of Portuguese as a control group. Our preliminary results indicate that heritage speakers 1) present different judgments in comparison to native speakers depending on the type of verb, specifically stative verbs, and 2) 1st and 2nd generation participants behave differently. Our results corroborate with the thesis that speakers of heritage languages present influence of the dominant language in their judgments. However, it is important to consider the different profiles of these speakers, as there is a wide range of competence according to their history with the heritage language, the community in which they live and their translinguistic influences (Rothman, 2009). For future research, it would be important to replicate this pilot study with more participants and include more tests for the inconsistencies found, especially for the stative verbs that accept the progressive in Portuguese.