The acquisition of grammatical gender in L1 bilingual Spanish

Fuertes, Raquel Fernández; Fuente, Esther Álvarez de la; Mujcinovic, Sonja

doi:10.1075/sibil.51.10fue

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…This range allowed for a subdivision of the bilingual group into three cohorts of interest: simultaneous bilinguals (AOB 0–3 years; n = 21), early sequential child bilinguals (AOB 4–6 years; n = 37), and late sequential child bilinguals (AOB 7–10 years; n = 17). AOBs of 4 and 7 years were chosen as cutoffs based on neuroimaging evidence that has suggested that sensitive periods occur around these ages (for review, see Meisel, 2009) but also based on developmental data given that the acquisition of grammatical gender in Spanish is believed to be completed prior to age 4 years (Fernández Fuertes et al., 2016; Montrul, 2004). Appendix S2 in the online Supporting Information provides additional information about the AOB subgroups and about participants removed from the study.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Owing to its binary gender system and highly reliable pattern of cues to gender values, gender agreement is an early-acquired property in Spanish. Spanish-speaking children raised monolingually acquire gender agreement by age 3 years (for reviews, see Fernández Fuertes, Álvarez de la Fuente, & Mujcinovic, 2016;Montrul, 2004), as do bilingually raised children learning Spanish as one of two L1s as simultaneous bilinguals (Fernández Fuertes et al, 2016). In contrast, heritage Spanish speakers evince difficulties with gender agreement that persist beyond early childhood (for review, see Montrul, 2004Montrul, , 2008Montrul, , 2016.…”

Section: Grammatical Gender In Spanish and Its Acquisitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Effect of Age of Onset of Bilingualism on Gender Agreement Processing in Spanish as a Heritage Language

Keating

2022

Language Learning

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Montrul's (2008) onset age hypothesis predicts that, if attrition occurs in early bilingualism, it will be more severe in simultaneous than in sequential bilinguals. This study tested that prediction in an eye-tracking experiment focused on the processing of Spanish gender agreement during sentence reading. Heritage Spanish speakers exposed to English at different ages (0-3, 4-6, 7-10 years) read sentences containing violations of noun-adjective gender agreement in 2 distance conditions (adjacent, nonadjacent). Mixed-effects modeling with reverse Helmert contrasts showed that heritage speakers displayed sensitivity to gender agreement violations in their minority language regardless of onset age and noun-adjective proximity. However, onset age of majority language acquisition determined how early sensitivity manifested itself in the time course of grammatical processing. Consistent with Montrul's hypothesis, sequential bilinguals showed sensitivity to violations earlier in their eye-movement record than did simultaneous bilinguals. The results suggest onset age can affect grammatical processing in bilinguals who otherwise acquire target like mental representations.Keywords age of onset of bilingualism; heritage language processing; gender agreement; eye tracking; Spanish This study was funded by a grant from the Language Learning Small Grants Research Program, for which I am grateful. I owe an immense debt of gratitude to Andrea Scalero and Yvette Bandín for their generous assistance with data collection and to Tyler Bergin for assistance gathering frequency norms. I also thank the anonymous reviewers, Editor Emma Marsden, and Associate Editor Judit Kormos for their constructive and encouraging feedback. An earlier version of this work was presented at the 2017 Second Language Research Forum (Columbus, OH).

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Grammatical Gender In Spanish and Its Acquisitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Age of Onset of Bilingualism on Gender Agreement Processing in Spanish as a Heritage Language

Keating

2022

Language Learning

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“…There is some evidence that, like monolingual children, bilingual children acquiring Spanish in a context where Spanish is the dominant language acquire determiner–noun and noun–adjective gender agreement by age three. Fernández Fuertes et al (2016) investigated the development of grammatical gender in a corpus of conversations with bilingual twins in Spain who were recorded between ages 1;01 to 5;09. Overall, the twins produced 84% target-like gender agreement with determiners and adjectives.…”

Section: Child Heritage Speakers’ Acquisition Of Spanish Gender Agreementioning

confidence: 99%

A corpus study of child heritage speakers’ Spanish gender agreement

Goebel-Mahrle

Shin

2020

International Journal of Bilingualism

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Objectives: This study investigates (a) whether child heritage speakers produce more gender mismatches in Spanish ( un piedra “a-masc. stone-fem.”) than monolingual children, (b) whether older child heritage speakers mismatch more than younger ones, and (c) linguistic contexts in which mismatches occur. Methodology: 3893 agreement forms were extracted from corpora of Spanish spoken by six monolingual children, ages 5–6 years, and three groups of US child heritage speakers: ten 5–6-year-olds, fifteen 7–8-year-olds, and twenty-one 9–11-year-olds. Data and analysis: Logistic regressions measured the impact of agreement form type, noun gender, noncanonical noun ending, and noun frequency on gender matching. One regression included 5–6-year-olds only (monolingual and heritage); the second included child heritage speakers only (5–11-year-olds). Findings: There were no significant differences between monolingual and heritage 5–6-year-olds; for these children, adjectives, direct object clitics, noncanonical nouns, and feminine nouns increased the likelihood of mismatches. Among the 5–11-year-old heritage speakers, direct object clitics referring to feminine nouns and noncanonical nouns increased the likelihood of mismatches. The 9–11-year-olds produced more gender mismatches referring to feminine nouns than the younger child heritage speakers, especially with direct object clitics. Originality: This corpus study provides evidence for high rates of gender matching and clarifies the contexts that increase the likelihood that children will mismatch. Implications: Gender matching remains an intact part of child heritage speakers’ Spanish grammars. The distribution of mismatches found provides evidence of a strong article–noun association and a weaker noun–direct object clitic association. The oldest child heritage speakers’ use of masculine clitic lo to refer to feminine nouns may reflect an association between English “it” and Spanish lo. More generally, the finding that mismatches tend to involve masculine forms referring to feminine nouns supports the idea that masculine is the default, unmarked form in Spanish.

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Gómez Carrero,

Ogneva

2023

RESLA

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This study addresses the acquisition of second language (L2) Spanish grammatical gender by native speakers of two typologically different languages: English (n = 39) and Russian (n = 37). We aim to explore if the presence or absence of gender features in the first language (L1) influences the acquisition of Spanish grammatical gender. Participants completed an acceptability judgment task consisting of 40 sentences with grammatical and ungrammatical Spanish Determiner Phrases (DPs). They included masculine and feminine Ns (Nouns) with transparent or opaque endings. Our findings show that (1) both groups are sensitive to gender non-matching structures, although L1 Russian speakers gave the lowest scores to ungrammatical structures in Spanish; (2) higher rating scores to masculine matching DPs point to the use of masculine as default by both L2 groups; (3) Ns with transparent endings act as cues for L2 Spanish learners, since both groups of participants rated the non-matching DPs with transparent Ns more accurately than those with opaque Ns. Therefore, our findings suggest that gender in L2 Spanish can be acquired regardless of the presence or the absence of these grammatical property in the L1, although its presence in the L1 seems to accelerate this process.

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The acquisition of grammatical gender in L1 bilingual Spanish

Cited by 6 publications

References 47 publications

The Effect of Age of Onset of Bilingualism on Gender Agreement Processing in Spanish as a Heritage Language

The Effect of Age of Onset of Bilingualism on Gender Agreement Processing in Spanish as a Heritage Language

A corpus study of child heritage speakers’ Spanish gender agreement

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