Linguistics ETDs

Anita Rao

Publication Date

5-1-2015

Abstract

This study addresses whether/how monolingual and bilingual Spanish-speaking children differ in their acquisition of grammar by examining direct object clitics in contexts where either proclisis or enclisis is possible (Lo voy a ver vs. Voy a verlo). The current study examines variable clitic placement in sociolinguistic interviews conducted with 21 Spanish-English bilingual children of Mexican descent, ages 5-11, and 71 monolingual children in Mexico, ages 6-11. All direct object clitics in variable contexts were extracted (N =140 tokens, .2% of total word count). Both the monolingual and bilingual children produced high rates of proclisis (76%, 75%, respectively). It is concluded that naturalistic production data do not support the view that English impacts bilingual childrens patterns of variable clitic placement in Spanish. Instead, their patterns of use are the same as those found among monolingual children.

Language

English

Keywords

Child language, bilingualism, clitics, Spanish

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Linguistics

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

Department of Linguistics

First Committee Member (Chair)

Morford, Jill

Second Committee Member

Vallejos-Yopán, Rosa

Third Committee Member

Shin, Naomi

Comments

Submitted by Anita Rao (raoa@unm.edu) on 2015-04-06T09:43:16Z No. of bitstreams: 1 AnitaThesis_Final.pdf: 487371 bytes, checksum: b126d8c91737c15ddd3929b15700e922 (MD5), Approved for entry into archive by Doug Weintraub (dwein@unm.edu) on 2015-06-26T20:42:44Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 AnitaThesis_Final.pdf: 487371 bytes, checksum: b126d8c91737c15ddd3929b15700e922 (MD5), Made available in DSpace on 2015-06-26T20:42:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 AnitaThesis_Final.pdf: 487371 bytes, checksum: b126d8c91737c15ddd3929b15700e922 (MD5)

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