Subject inversion in non-native Spanish
Subject inversion in non-native Spanish
This study presents new empirical evidence on the L2 acquisition of Spanish SV-VS contrasts, a syntax-pragmatics interface phenomenon. Results from a context-dependant preference task involving unergative and unaccusative verbs in different focus situations (broad and narrow focus) reveal that beginner and intermediate English speakers prefer SV in all contexts. In contrast, advanced learners, who clearly know that VS is possible in Spanish, show a pattern of optionality with unergative verbs (in both broad and narrow focus contexts), whereas VS is correctly preferred with unaccusative verbs in both broad and narrowly-focused contexts. We argue that these results can be explained by a representational deficit according to which the VS order is overgeneralized to unergative verbs regardless of the discursive situation. We argue that learners’ overuse of VS structures is exacerbated by the lack of clear evidence for the use of SV and VS forms in the native input.
word order, inversion, intransitive verbs, unaccusatives, interfaces, subject, spanish
243-265
Dominguez, Laura
9c1bf2b4-b582-429b-9e8a-5264c4b7e63f
Arche, Maria J.
1844eaee-d062-48e3-a4ff-7c839be3872d
June 2014
Dominguez, Laura
9c1bf2b4-b582-429b-9e8a-5264c4b7e63f
Arche, Maria J.
1844eaee-d062-48e3-a4ff-7c839be3872d
Abstract
This study presents new empirical evidence on the L2 acquisition of Spanish SV-VS contrasts, a syntax-pragmatics interface phenomenon. Results from a context-dependant preference task involving unergative and unaccusative verbs in different focus situations (broad and narrow focus) reveal that beginner and intermediate English speakers prefer SV in all contexts. In contrast, advanced learners, who clearly know that VS is possible in Spanish, show a pattern of optionality with unergative verbs (in both broad and narrow focus contexts), whereas VS is correctly preferred with unaccusative verbs in both broad and narrowly-focused contexts. We argue that these results can be explained by a representational deficit according to which the VS order is overgeneralized to unergative verbs regardless of the discursive situation. We argue that learners’ overuse of VS structures is exacerbated by the lack of clear evidence for the use of SV and VS forms in the native input.
Text
Dominguez & Arche 2014.pdf
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
e-pub ahead of print date: 16 May 2014
Published date: June 2014
Keywords:
word order, inversion, intransitive verbs, unaccusatives, interfaces, subject, spanish
Organisations:
Modern Languages
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 174281
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/174281
ISSN: 0024-3841
PURE UUID: a79256b4-6178-42aa-837c-8d4c538da42c
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 14 Feb 2011 11:12
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 05:31
Export record
Altmetrics
Contributors
Author:
Maria J. Arche
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics
