College of Liberal and Fine Arts
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Browsing College of Liberal and Fine Arts by Department "Modern Languages and Literatures"
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Item A Usage-Based Perspective on Spanish Variable Clitic Placement(2020-09-07) Requena, Pablo E.This study provides a usage-based analysis of Spanish Variable Clitic Placement (VCP). A variationist analysis of VCP in spoken Argentine Spanish indicates that VCP grammar is constrained by lexical (finite verb) and semantic (animacy) factors. Considering the finite effect, the study focuses on usage-based accounts for the gradience attested across finite verb constructions. Grammaticalized meaning and increased frequency tend to account for VCP in general. However, one [tener que + infinitive] construction is found exceptional in that it favors enclisis despite its grammaticalized meaning of obligation and its high frequency of use. Data from a larger corpus indicate that the [tener que + infinitive] construction lacks unithood, signaling great analyzability of its component elements. Through an exemplar analysis, the [haber que ‘must’ + infinitive] construction that categorically takes enclisis and which is strongly linked to [tener que + infinitive] diachronically, semantically, and structurally emerges as a likely analogical model for VCP with tener que, pushing tener que towards enclisis. This study not only illustrates how usage-based linguistics can capture VCP more generally, but also how this framework provides powerful tools to discover the constraints on VCP in naturalistic use in order to account for individual construction behavior.Item Cross-linguistic influence in L1 processing of morphosyntactic variation: Evidence from L2 learners(Cambridge University Press, 2021-01-14) Requena, Pablo E.; Berry, Grant M.The current study investigates cross-linguistic influence of second language (L2) learning on native language (L1) processing of morphosyntactic variation in proficient L2 learners immersed in their L1. Despite Spanish pre- and postverbal clitic pronoun positions being grammatical in complex verb phrases, preferences of use have been well attested in naturalistic language production. To examine whether those preferences obtain for comprehension in monolinguals, as well as how those preferences might be modulated by learning an L2 with fixed pronoun positions, we administered a self-paced reading experiment to 20 Spanish monolinguals as well as 22 proficient learners English (L1 Spanish). The results of a Bayesian mixed effects regression analysis suggest that preferences in production are echoed in comprehension—but only for the monolingual group. We find support for facilitation in the bilingual group precisely where both languages overlap, as well as evidence that bilinguals may not use clitic position as a reliable cue at all. We interpret the results as evidence that learning an L2 that lacks variation for a particular feature may lead to reduced sensitivity to that feature as a cue in an analogous L1 structure. We situate these results in an experience-based, shared-syntax account of language processing.Item DO LEARNERS CONNECT SOCIOPHONETIC VARIATION WITH REGIONAL AND SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS? THE CASE OF L2 PERCEPTION OF SPANISH ASPIRATION(Cambridge University Press, 2021-05-11) Chappell, Whitney; Kanwit, MatthewLearners must develop the ability to perceive linguistic and social meaning in their second language (L2) to interact effectively, but relatively little is known about how learners link social meaning to a single phonetic variable. Using a matched-guise test targeting coda /s/ (realized as [s] or debuccalized [h]), we explore whether L2 Spanish learners identify native speakers’ social characteristics based on phonetic variants. Our results indicate that advanced learners were more sensitive to sociophonetic information; advanced listeners who had completed a phonetics course were significantly more likely to categorize /s/ reducers as Caribbean and those who had studied abroad in aspirating regions recognized a relationship between coda /s/ and status. To account for the complex interplay among proficiency, explicit instruction, and dialectal exposure in the development of L2 sociophonetic perception, we suggest the union of the L2 Linguistic Perception Model with exemplar models of phonological representation and indexical meaning.Item Early acquisition of syntactic variation: Lexical conditioning of Spanish variable clitic placement(Cambridge University Press, 2023-12-07) Requena, Pablo E.This paper examines how children acquire Spanish variable clitic placement (VCP), a lexically conditioned phenomenon whereby clitics may precede or follow complex verb phrases. Research on how children acquire truly syntactic variable phenomena suggests that they either generalize one variant initially or they match the variation in the input from the beginning. Here I examine how children acquire the lexical conditioning of Spanish VCP. A corpus study of naturalistic conversations between parents and young children suggests that from the earliest ages examined (2;0-3;0) children display lexically-specific patterns that seem to be fine-tuned by the early school years. Experimental results using two different elicitation techniques with children ages 4;0-7;0 provide further support for early acquisition of the lexical conditioning of VCP and some evidence for fine-tuning during this age window. Thus, methodological triangulation enables detection of variable use where children would otherwise show categorical use of variants with infrequent syntactic phenomena, such as Spanish VCP.Item Factores que influyen en la comprensión de las cláusulas subordinadas de relativo en español: estudio exploratorio(Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, 2018-12) Manoiloff, Laura M. V.; Carando, Ma. Constanza; Cesaretti, Daiana B.; Ferrero, Cecilia; Ramírez, Adrian; Requena, Pablo E.; Defagó, Cecilia M.; Alemany, Laura Alonso; Segui, JuanAbstract: Most of the comprehension of sentential meaning depends on how easily speakers assign thematic roles (such as Agent or Patient) to noun phrases. This process is particularly useful for comprehending relative clauses given that when processing them speakers need to dis-cern if they are dealing with a Subject (S) relative clause (El joven1 [que1Sujeto vino] trajo una valija, ‘The young man1 [that1Subject came] brought the suitcase’) or an Object (O) relative clause (El joven1 [que1Objetoyosaludé] trajo una valija, ‘[The young man1 [that1ObjectI greeted] brought the suitcase]’). Previous research has shown that the former type is easier to process than the latter type and it has been suggested that factors such as word order and the presence or absence of Case marking could impact the processing of O relative clauses. The present exploratory study is the first one to exploit the morphosyntactic flexibility of Spanish in order to examine four structures that combine different word orders with the presence or absence of Case marking. Following the presentation of a frequency analysis of these structures in a written corpus of Spanish, this paper presents two studies: one about spontaneous comprehension (thematic role assignment) without time limit and another one in which responses were timed. Results suggest that both canonical word order and Case marking positively impact comprehension. Resumen: La comprensión del significado oracional depende en gran parte de la facilidad con que los hablantes asignan roles temáticos (como Agente o Paciente) a los sintagmas nominales. Este procedimiento es particularmente útil para comprender cláusulas subordinadas de relativo, ya que al procesarlas los hablantes deben discernir si se trata de relativas con extracción de Sujeto (S) ([El joven1 [que1Sujeto vino] trajo una valija]) o con extracción de Objeto (O) (El joven1 [que1Objetoyo saludé] trajo una valija). Trabajos previos han mostrado que el primer tipo de extracción resulta más fácil de procesar que el segundo y se ha sugerido que factores como el orden de palabras y la presencia o ausencia de marca de Caso podrían influir en el procesamiento de las relativas de O. El presente estudio exploratorio es el primero que aprovecha la flexibilidad morfosintáctica del español para examinar cuatro estructuras que combinan distintos órdenes de palabras con presencia o ausencia de marca de Caso. Luego de ofrecer un análisis de frecuencia de uso de estas estructuras en un corpus escrito del español, se presentan dos estudios: uno sobre comprensión espontánea (asignación de roles) sin límite de tiempo y otro de elección de opciones con límite de tiempo. Los resultados sugieren que tanto el orden canónico como la marca de Caso benefician la comprensión.Item Integrating Environmental Awareness in ELT Through Picturebooks(Nord University, 2022-11) Cad, Ana Cecilia; Liruso, Susana; Requena, Pablo E.This paper provides a report of classroom experiences that provide insight into the use of a picturebook to raise students’ environmental awareness in an ELT primary context in Argentina. It describes how a picturebook can help build reading comprehension in a second language and foster learning across the curriculum mediated by literature. First, we discuss how picturebooks can contribute to ELT and to raising students’ awareness of environmental citizenship. Then, we present two pedagogical interventions with children aged 9 to 11 years old that made use of a teacher-produced picturebook dealing with the environmental issue of wildfire devastation. Through examples of children’s performance in activities that accompanied the reading events, we illustrate how children can make use of non-linguistic resources to understand linguistic input in a second/foreign language and interpret the meaning of a story. The experiences also reveal a teacher-initiated approach to facilitate reflection about environmental issues through picturebooks.Item Spanish copula selection with adjectives at age three(Cambridge University Press, 2020-08-25) Requena, Pablo E.Previous comprehension studies using Picture Matching Tasks (PMT) have shown that, by the age of four, Spanish-speaking children have acquired the semantics of estar being able to calculate the implicature that a property introduced with estar does not hold independent of time as well as displaying some ability to integrate discourse information about properties that change in the course of a story. This study extends that line of research to children under the age of four. Thirty-eight monolingual Spanish-speaking children were tested in two PMTs. The results show that at age three children differ from older children in their interpretation of the copulas suggesting that the distinction between ser and estar with adjectives emerges between the ages of three and four.Item Spanish copula selection with adjectives in school-aged bilingual children(SAGE Publications, 2020-09-28) Requena, Pablo E.; Dracos, MelisaAims and objectives/purpose/research questions: This study examined whether school-aged second-generation heritage speakers exhibit knowledge of the semantic and pragmatic constraints on Spanish copula selection with adjectives, and whether experiential factors affect copula interpretation. Design/methodology/approach: Following a between-subjects design, we administered 2 Picture Selection Tasks to 50 second-generation bilingual children (ages 5;1–14;10) and 21 first-generation adults living in the same community in central Texas. Task 1 included real adjectives and Task 2 novel adjectives. We administered a morphosyntactic proficiency test in English and Spanish (BESA/BESA-ME) to the children and obtained language exposure and use data. Data and analysis: Using generalized linear mixed models, analyses compared bilingual children to first-generation adults in their selection of the temporary picture with each copula (ser vs. estar), and also examined the role of age, language exposure/use, and morphosyntactic proficiency. Findings/conclusions: Only children with high Spanish morphosyntactic proficiency approached adult-like sensitivity to the semantic and pragmatic distinctions between ser and estar with adjectives. Age, Spanish exposure and use, and English proficiency did not significantly influence performance on the tasks. Originality: This study provides the first detailed examination of the acquisition of copula selection with adjectives in Spanish-English school-aged heritage speakers living in the US. Significance/implications: This study offers evidence of the vulnerability of aspect, as instantiated in Spanish copula selection, among school-aged bilingual children. It also suggests low-proficiency children might be a catalyzing locus of the accelerated changes in copula use.Item Stereotypes, language, and race: Spaniards’ perception of Latin American immigrants(Cambridge University Press, 2023-07-11) Chappell, Whitney; Barnes, SoniaThe present study explores how two symbolic boundaries—linguistic variety and race—intersect, influencing how Latin American immigrants are perceived in Spain. To this end, 217 Spaniards participated in an experiment in which they evaluated three men along a series of social properties, but they were presented with different combinations of linguistic variety (Argentinian, Colombian, or Spanish) and race (a White or Mestizo photograph). The results of mixed-effects regression models found that linguistic variety conditioned participants’ evaluations of status, occupational prestige, solidarity, and trustworthiness, and both variety and race conditioned evaluations of religiousness. We contend that linguistic features become associated with a specific group of people through rhematization (Gal, 2005; Irvine & Gal, 2000) and, by extension, ideologies link those people with stereotypical characteristics. We conclude that the “ideological twinning” (Rosa & Flores, 2017) of race and linguistic variety can enhance stereotypes toward immigrants and impact their experiences in the receiving country.Item Un estudio comparativo de la cognición docente en profesores de español y de inglés como lengua extranjera(La Universidad Católica de Córdoba, 2010-04) Liruso, Susana M.; Requena, Pablo E.El objetivo de este artículo es presentar los resultados parciales de una investigación sobre las creencias y los pensamientos que subyacen en las acciones docentes de profesores de español y de inglés como lengua extranjera (LE). Este estudio se realiza en la Facultad de Lenguas, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba con el aval de SeCyT. Se dará cuenta de los resultados parciales que indican que los docentes al señalar los puntos débiles de una clase los circunscriben, principalmente, a las categorías "procedimientos y tareas" y "alumnos". Se compararán resultados obtenidos de profesores de ambos idiomas.Item Variable production and indexical social meaning: On the potential physiological origin of intervocalic /s/ voicing in Costa Rican Spanish(De Gruyter, 2017-05-02) Chappell, Whitney; Garcia, ChristinaIn several dialects of Spanish, men tend to exhibit more intervocalic /s/ voicing than women, e. g., oso ‘bear’ as [ozo], and this difference may have a physiological basis. File-Muriel et al. (2015, Disentangling the physiological from the socially-learned in gradient, sociophonetic processes: Evidence from s-realization in Barranquilla, Colombia. Unpublished manuscript) found that vocal tract size conditions /s/ aspiration in Barranquilla, and Nadeu and Hualde (2013, Reinterpretation of biomechanics as gender-conditioned variation in the origin of diachronic intervocalic voicing. Available at http://washo.uchicago.edu/pub/workshop/nadeu.pdf) contend that speakers with larger vocal tracts may have greater difficulty controlling vocal fold cessation. The present work serves as a continuation of these studies, utilizing 18 sociolinguistic interviews to determine (i) what factors are most predictive of intervocalic [z] in Costa Rica and (ii) whether physiology can potentially explain its origin. The results of a statistical analysis using 1,647 tokens of /s/ show that both gender and physiological factors significantly condition voicing (p < 0.001), with more voicing in men’s speech, as F2 decreases, and as f0 decreases. However, one would expect more gradient voicing in men’s speech if physiological factors caused the gender-based voicing difference, but women voice more gradiently while men produce higher rates of 0 % and 100 % voicing. We conclude that while physiological factors may have been its original source, non-physiological factors currently condition /s/-voicing in Costa Rica, with male speakers aiming for categorical targets for social motivations.