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In:Bridging Boundaries: Interdisciplinary perspectives on Hispanic Linguistics
Edited by Gregory L. Thompson and Scott M. Alvord
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 46] 2026
► pp. 38–61

Chapter 2
Adverbial placement in school-age Spanish/English bilingual children

 | Purdue University
 | Purdue University
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
This article investigates adverbial positioning in school-age Spanish/English bilingual children born in the United States to Mexican-born parents. Results from an elicited production task showed divergent word-order patterns among the heritage children compared to monolingual children of similar age, crucially in their low probability of verb-raising constructions (Subject-Verb-Adverb-Object) and more usage of the preverbal position (Subject-Adverb-Verb-Object). The heritage children also showed a high production of adverbs in final position. Adverbial position patterns were highly correlated with language experience and proficiency. The results suggest differences in the rate and route of adverbial placement acquisition in heritage Spanish and provide support to recent proposals on the role of experience and language dominance in heritage language development.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1The syntax behind adverbial placement in Spanish and English language
    • 1.2Adverb placement: Previous research in adult and child language acquisition
    • 1.3Bilingual alignments in heritage language acquisition
  • 2.The study
    • 2.1Research questions and hypotheses
    • 2.2Participants
    • 2.3Tasks and procedures
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Manner adverbs
    • 3.2Frequency adverbs
    • 3.3A measure for individual adverb positionings
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Author queries
  • References
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