Cover not available
Part of
Language Acquisition in Romance Languages
Edited by Vicenç Torrens
[Bilingual Processing and Acquisition 18] 2024
► pp. 34–55

Chapter 2
Aspects of morphosyntax of Majorcan Catalan-Spanish bilingual variety

The omission of direct objects

| University of the Balearic Islands
| University of the Balearic Islands
| University of the Balearic Islands
This paper studies structural convergence between two Romance languages that are in close contact. More specifically, it analyzes the differences in clitic realization and object omission in Spanish and Catalan. While in Spanish it is possible to omit phrases corresponding to direct objects based on their definiteness (Campos, 1986; Clements, 2006) and not to their syntactic position, Catalan does not regularly omit object pronouns but requires the use of the partitive en with indefinite antecedents. A five-point Likert scale grammaticality judgment task adapted from Bruhn de Garavito & Guijarro-Fuentes (2002) was designed to measure the acceptability of different object expressions in 70 different constructions in Spanish by monolingual native speakers (n = 44) and Catalan-Spanish bilingual speakers (n = 34). In the task, participants read a short dialogue containing a question and a short answer and were asked to rate the naturalness of the answer. Linguistic variables included the type of syntactic structure (simple or complex clauses), the semantic properties of the referent (+/- definite), and the grammaticality of the utterance. Stimuli were replicated seven times per condition. Results indicated significant differences between monolinguals and bilinguals, as the latter systematically accept ample optionality concerning null direct objects. Conversely, differences according to language dominance in the bilingual group could not be verified. Our data allow us to discuss views on the realization of interpretable features and on bilingual variability.
Keywords: direct object expression, Majorcan Catalan-Spanish bilinguals, language dominance, mode of bilingualism
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Majorcan Catalan-Spanish adult bilingualism
  • 3.Direct object pronominalization in Catalan and Spanish
  • 4.Our research predictions
  • 5.Methodology
    • 5.1Participants
    • 5.2Linguistic task and procedure
    • 5.3Data treatment and analysis
  • 6.Results
    • 6.1Monolingual and bilingual results
    • 6.2Bilingual results according to language dominance
  • 7.Discussion and general conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 25 July 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/bpa.18.02gui
References (62)
References
Aguiló Perez, E., & Juaneda, S. C. (2000). Tourist expenditure for mass tourism markets. Annals of Tourism Research, 27(3), 624–637. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ahern, A., Amenós-Pons, J., & Guijarro-Fuentes, P. (2022). Expressing evidentiality in two languages: Conjectural future in Catalan/Spanish bilinguals. In J. I. Marín-Arrese (Ed.), Stance and subjectivity in discourse. Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Arehalli, S., & Wittenberg, E. (2021). Experimental filler design influences error correction rates in a word restoration paradigm. Linguistics Vanguard, 7(1). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Birdsong, D., Gertken, L., & Amengual, M. (n.d.). Bilingual Language Profile: An easy-to-use instrument to assess bilingualism. COERLL, University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved on 19 January 2024 from [URL]
Blas-Arroyo, J. L. (2007). Spanish and Catalan in the Balearic Islands. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2007(184), 79–93. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bosch, L., & Sebastián-Gallés, N. (2001). Evidence of early language discrimination abilities in infants from bilingual environments. Infancy, 2(1), 29–49. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bruhn de Garavito, J., & Guijarro-Fuentes, P. (2002). L2 acquisition of indefinite object dropin Spanish. In J. Costa & M. J. Freitas (Eds.), GALA 2001 Proceedings (pp. 60–67). Associação Portuguesa de Linguística.Google Scholar
Bruyèl-Olmedo, A., & Juan-Garau, M. (2009). English as a lingua franca in the linguistic landscape of the multilingual resort of S’Arenal in Mallorca. International Journal of Multilingualism, 6(4), 386–411. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2015). Shaping tourist LL: Language display and the sociolinguistic background of an international multilingual readership. International Journal of Multilingualism, 12(1), 51–67. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2020). Coexisting varieties of English in the linguistic landscape of tourism: The Bay of Palma. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 41(2), 157–174. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Camacho, J., Paredes, L., & Sánchez, L. (1997). Null objects in bilingual Andean Spanish. In E. Hughes, M. Hughes, & A. Greenhill (Eds.), Proceedings of the 21st annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (Vol 1., pp. 55–66). Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Campos, H. (1986). Indefinite object drop. Linguistic Inquiry, 17, 354–359.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (2000). The architecture of language. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Clements, J. C. (2006). Null direct objects in Spanish. In J. C. Clements & J. Yoon (Eds.), Functional approaches to Spanish syntax (pp. 134–150). Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Clifton, C., Staub, A., & Rayner, K. (2007). Eye movements in reading words and sentences. In R. P. G. van Gompel, M. H. Fischer, W. S. Murray, & R. L. Hill (Eds.), Eye movements (pp. 341–371). Elsevier. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Clyne, M. (1991). Pluricentric Languages. De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cowart, W. (1997). Experimental syntax: Applying objective methods to sentence judgments. Sage.Google Scholar
Cuza, A., & Guijarro Fuentes, P. (2018). The distribution of copulas ser and estar in Spanish/Catalan bilinguals. In A. Cuza & P. Guijarro-Fuentes (Eds.), Language acquisition and contact in the Iberian peninsula (pp. 63–90). De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2020). The production of ser/estar in Spanish-Catalan bilingual children. In J. J. Colomina-Almiñana & S. Sessarego (Eds.), Language patterns in Spanish and beyond (pp. 521–573). Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
de Prada Pérez, A. (2009). Subject expression in Minorcan Spanish: Consequences of contact with Catalan (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). The Pennsylvania State University.
Gavarró, A. (2018). Language acquisition and change: The acquisition of the Catalan partitive and locative clitics. In A. Cuza & P. Guijarro-Fuentes (Eds.), Language acquisition and contact in the Iberian peninsula (pp. 11–36). Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Geeslin, K. L., & Guijarro-Fuentes, P. (2008). Variation in contemporary Spanish: Linguistic predictors of estar in four cases of language contact. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 11(3), 365–380. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Guijarro-Fuentes, P., & Marinis, T. (2009). The acquisition of personal preposition a by Catalan-Spanish and English-Spanish bilinguals. In J. Collentine, M. García, B. Lafford, & F. Marcos Marín (Eds.), Selected Proceedings of the 11th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium (pp. 81–92). Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Heim, I. (1981). The semantics of definite and indefinite noun phrases (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Massachusetts.
Huang, C.- T. J. (1982). Logical relations in Chinese and the theory of grammar (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Hulk, A., & Müller, N. (2000). Bilingual first language acquisition at the interface between syntax and pragmatics. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 3(3), 227–244. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Illamola i Gómez, C. (2015). Contacto de lenguas y la expresión de la posterioridad temporal en español de Cataluña (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Universitat de Barcelona.
Jiménez-Gaspar, A., Pires, A., & Guijarro-Fuentes, P. (2020a). Transfer and convergence between Catalan and Spanish in a bilingual setting. In L. Ortiz-López, R. E. Guzzardo Tamargo, & M. González-Rivera (Eds.), Hispanic contact linguistics: Theoretical, methodological and empirical perspectives (pp. 179–211). John Benjamins.Google Scholar
(2020b). Bilingualism and language change: The case of pronominal clitics in Catalan and Spanish. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 23(2), 113–131. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kroll, J. F., Dussias, P. E., Bogulski, C. A., & Kroff, J. R. V. (2012). Juggling two languages in one mind (pp. 229–262). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Landa, A. (1995). Conditions on null objects in Basque Spanish and their relation to leísmo and clitic doubling (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Southern California.
Lardiere, D. (2008). Feature-assembly in second language acquisition. In J. Liceras, H. Zobl, & H. Goodluck (Eds.), The role of formal features in second language acquisition (pp. 106–140). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
(2009). Some thoughts on the contrastive analysis of features in second language acquisition. Second Language Research, 25(2), 173–227. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lasagabaster, D. (2017). Language learning motivation and language attitudes in multilingual Spain from an international perspective. The Modern Language Journal, 101(3), 583–596. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Leonetti, M. (2011). Indefinidos, nombres escuetos y clíticos en las dislocaciones en español. Cuadernos de La ALFAL, 3, 100–123.Google Scholar
Maldonado Cárdenas, M. (2012). Español como lengua pluricéntrica. Algunas formas ejemplares del español peninsular y del español en América. In F. Lebsanft, W. Mihatsch & C. Polzin-Hauman (Eds.), El español, ¿desde las variedades a la lengua pluricéntrica? (pp. 95–122). Iberoamericana Vervuert. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Meisel, J. M. (2009). Second language acquisition in early childhood. Zeitschrift Für Sprachwissenschaft, 28(1), 5–34. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Melià Garí, J., & Vanrell Bosch, M. del M. (2017). Enquesta d’usos lingüístics a les Illes Balears 2014. Anàlisi. Govern de les Illes Balears, Generalitat de Catalunya, Universitat de les Illes Balears.Google Scholar
Moreno-Fernández, F. (2019). Macroregional sociolinguistics: Uses and preferences on null direct objects in Spanish. Journal of Linguistic Geography, 7(1), 46–60. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pérez, E. A., & Nadal, J. R. (2005). Host community perceptions a cluster analysis. Annals of Tourism Research, 32(4), 925–941. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Perpiñán, S. (2017). Catalan-Spanish bilingualism continuum. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 7(5), 477–513. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2018). On convergence, ongoing language change, and crosslinguistic influence in direct object expression in Catalan – Spanish bilingualism. Languages, 3(2), 14. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Prince, E. F. (1998). The borrowing of meaning as a cause of internal syntactic change. In M. S. Schmid, J. R. Austin, & D. Stein (Eds.), Historical linguistics 1997: Selected papers from the 13th International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Düsseldorf, 10–17. August 1997 (p. 339). DOI logo
Reig-Alamillo, A. (2009). Cross-dialectal variation in propositional anaphora: Null objects and propositional lo in Mexican and Peninsular Spanish. Language Variation and Change, 21, 381–412.Google Scholar
Russell, B. (1905). On denoting. Mind, 14, 479–493.Google Scholar
Sánchez, L. (2003). Quechua-Spanish Bilingualism. John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2004). Functional convergence in the tense, evidentiality and aspectual systems of Quechua-Spanish bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 7(2), 147–162.Google Scholar
(2015). Crosslinguistic influences in the mapping of functional features in Quechua-Spanish bilingualism. In T. Judy & S. Perpiñán (Eds.), The acquisition of Spanish in understudied language pairings (pp. 21–48). John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schwenter, S. (2006). Null object across South America. In T. L. Face & C. A. Klee (Eds.), Selected proceedings of the 8th Hispanic Linguistic Symposium (pp. 23–26). Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
(2011). Variationist approaches to Spanish morphosyntax: Internal and external factors. In M. Díaz-Campos (Ed.), The handbook of Hispanic sociolinguistics (pp. 123–147). Blackwell.Google Scholar
Silva-Corvalán, C. (1998). On borrowing as a mechanism of syntactic change. In A. Schwegler, B. Tranel, & M. Uribe-Etxebarria (Eds.), Romance linguistics: Theoretical perspectives. Selected papers from the 27th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL XXVII), Irvine, 20–22. February, 1997 (pp. 225–246). John Benjamins. DOI logo
(2008). The limits of convergence in language contact. Journal of Language Contact, 2(1), 213–224. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sorace, A. (2012). Pinning down the concept of interface in bilingual development. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 2(2), 209–217. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Soto-Corominas, A. (2021). Acquisition of quantified partitivity in Catalan-Spanish bilingualism. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 11(6), 873–908. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Suñer, M., & Yépez, M. (1988). Null definite objects in Quiteño. Linguistic Inquiry, 19(3), 511–519.Google Scholar
Thomason, S. G. (2001). Language contact: An introduction. Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
(2007). Language contact and deliberate change. Journal of Language Contact, 1(1), 41–62. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Thomason, S. G., & Kaufman, T. (1988). Language contact, creolization, and genetic linguistics. University of California Press.Google Scholar
Trudgill, P. (1989). Language contact and simplification. Nordlyd, 15, 115–121.Google Scholar
Tsimpli, I. M. (2005). Variation in the L2 speaker. In K. Brown (ed.). In Encyclopaedia of language and linguistics (2nd ed., Vol. 13, pp. 387–394). Elsevier.Google Scholar
Verdecchia, M. (2022). Object drop in Spanish is not island-sensitive. Journal of Linguistics, 1–6. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
von Heusinger, K. (1997). Salience and definiteness. Prague Bulletin of Mathematical Linguistics, 67, 5–23.Google Scholar