Non-Creole Features in the Verb System of Afro-Hispanic Languages: New Insights from SLA Studies

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to show how two commonly found linguistic features in Afro-Hispanic contact varieties can be explained as the result of advanced second language strategies and, for this reason, they do not necessary imply a previous creole stage for these languages. The features under inspection are lack of subject-verb agreement and the presence of non-emphatic, non-contrastive overt subjects. The current analysis recurs to recent findings in generative approaches to second language acquisition (SLA) to provide new insights into the nature of these syntactic structures.

Afro-Peruvian Spanish

“…Megenney, who is of a similar opinion, suggests that the high rate of overt pronouns in Afro-Venezuelan Spanish may be linked to a previous creole phase, since "the constant presence of personal pronouns is one of the typical features found in creole languages, and in Colombian Palenquero these pronouns are used categorically" (1999: 117). 9 We will return on this topic in Chapter 4, where I will show that these features commonly found in Afro-Hispanic languages should not necessarily be analyzed as the traces of a previous creole stage (see also Sessarego 2012).…”

Revisiting the Null Subject Parameter: New Insights from Afro-Peruvian Spanish

“…The CS variety and the other AHLAs display variable levels of subject-verb (dis)agreement. These phenomena, in turn, reflect an aspect of their degree of restructuring (Sessarego 2012 The presence of non-inverted questions may also be ascribed to the nativization of advanced second language acquisition processes. In fact, while several formal approaches maintain that the presence/absence of subject-verb inversion may be linked to the existence of a parametrized interrogative feature strength ([+wh/Q]) in C°, which would be difficult to acquire even in late L2 stages (Rizzi 1996;Cuza 2013;Guerra Rivera et al 2015), linguistic theories that do not necessarily embrace the parametric/minimalist framework do acknowledge that subject-verb inversion is only mastered at advanced L2 levels of proficiency (cf.…”