Input and cross-linguistic influence effects: Evidence from embedded WH questions in the Spanish of heritage speakers

Joshua Frank, Purdue University

Abstract

This study examines how Spanish and English diverge in the way they represent embedded WH questions. Only Spanish permits a non-ask/wonder verb of saying (e.g., decir "to say", gritar "to yell", contestar "to reply") to introduce an embedded WH question. These are called double QUE question (DQQ) constructions (e.g., Cuza & Frank, 2011; Demonte & Fernández-Soriano, 2009; Plann, 1982; Rivero, 1980; Suñer, 1991). These structures can be analyzed with either a recursive CP or a split CP syntactic analysis and are applicable to surface overlap transfer theories (e.g., Hulk and Müller, 2000; Rizzi, 1997; Suñer, 1991; Yip & Matthews, 2009). The outcomes of an elicited production task, an acceptability judgment task, and a preference task demonstrate significant differences between seventeen heritage speakers of Spanish and a monolingual Spanish control group. Specifically, DQQ structures are not completely developed in the bilingual grammar of the heritage speakers. Input frequency, transfer reinforced by input ambiguity, and the acquisition of the semantic and functional role of the complementizer QUE "that" together explain these results.

Degree

M.A.

Advisors

Cuza, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Linguistics|Language

COinS