The Spanish comparative correlative (CC) is a biclausal construction (e.g., [Cuanto más leo,]_C1 [tanto más entiendo]_C2) that is characterized by complex semantics and form. Previous studies have tried to account for it with maximally abstract rules. I present a corpus study, based on over 3,300 CC tokens from the Spanish Web 2018 corpus (Kilgarriff & Renau, 2013), whose results have implications for such analyses. Applying Hoffmann et al.’s (2019) methodology and expanding on my previous study on Spanish CCs (Horsch, 2024), I employ covarying-collexeme analysis (Stefanowitsch & Gries, 2005, pp. 9–11) to detect cross-clausal associations between the two subclauses, C1 and C2. The results show statistically significant formal interdependencies between C1 and C2 — that is, what happens formally/syntactically in C1 influences what happens formally/syntactically in C1, and vice versa. In light of these findings, I argue that maximally abstract rules are insufficient for modeling the Spanish CC. Rather, the results indicate the existence of an elaborate network of interconnected constructions of varying degrees of abstractness. This network corresponds to the tenets of usage-based construction grammar, an approach that assumes that linguistic knowledge can be modeled as a complex network that, in the words of Traugott and Trousdale (2013), is “baroque, involving massive redundancy and vastly rich detail” (p. 53).

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.

In this paper, we explore the syntactic and semantic properties of universal todo in Spanish, focusing on its different properties when combined with bare nouns and definite DPs. Our analysis challenges the traditional view that treats these variants of todo as a single element, proposing instead a non-unified analysis. More specifically, we argue that todo in Spanish comprises two distinct elements: todo-QDet, a universal quantifier analogous to English every, and todo-OP, a maximality operator similar to English all. We show that todo-OP and todo-QDet differ with respect to their combinatorial possibilities, their ability to float, the possibility of collective readings, and the availability of domain restriction. We then put forth a formal semantic analysis for todo-QDet and todo-OP that accounts for these differences. More specifically, we argue that todo-QDet is a quantifier that does not include a domain restriction variable, whereas todo-OP is an operator that rules out the non-maximality reading of plurals.

The focus of this paper is the phenomenon of semantic variation in two varieties of Argentine Spanish in the domain of events of material separation (cutting and breaking [C&B]) (Bohnemeyer et al., 2001). Variation in this domain has been explored cross-linguistically (Jameson & Webster, 2019; Majid et al., 2008; Pye et al., 1995) and diachronically within one language (Du et al., 2020), but semantic typological variation across regional varieties remains underexplored. This paper explores the merits of applying typological methods designed for cross-linguistic comparison to different varieties of one language. Cross-linguistic variation in the domain of C&B has been well-attested in semantic typology. However, studies of the meaning and extension of lexis have yet to be traditionally applied to interspeaker variation (Robinson, 2012). Given the blurred distinctions between “language” and “variety” (McWhorter, 2016), it is possible that semantic variation exists for different varieties of the same language. Indeed, semantic variation is attested in Spanish present perfect constructions (Ocampo, 2008). Additionally, it is essential to consider typological universals when exploring local differentiation in a language (Tagliamonte & Jankowski, 2023). For this study, data were collected from speakers of the Cordobés and Rioplatense varieties of Spanish using the stimuli of a series of 28 video clips depicting various events of material separation developed by Bohnemeyer et al. (2001). A total of 18 participants (11 female, 7 male, aged 18–54) viewed each video clip and were then asked to describe the event verbally. The data were coded for primary and secondary verb choice, demographic information (age, participant origin, education level, second language, etc.), and information on the response stimuli (instrument, manner, etc.). Preliminary results indicate a possible distinction between Cordobés and Rioplatense in the categorization of C&B events, though a more in-depth study with a larger sample size is needed to obtain conclusive results.

This paper examines cleft questions in Nariñense Andean Spanish (NAS) especially focusing on wh-es que-cleft (EQC) questions — constructions that allow wh-phrases to be separated from their matrix clause through the insertion of the cluster ser que [be that]. We provide a crosslinguistic overview comparing EQC questions in French, Portuguese, and NAS. Following morphosyntactic properties, we propose a bi-clausal syntactic analysis couched in a Minimalist approach that accounts for EQC questions in NAS. We also provide empirical evidence that explains semantic-pragmatic differences between pseudo-cleft (PC) and EQC questions. Our observations reveal semantic and syntactic restrictions that allow EQC but not PC questions. Although both clefts are infelicitous discourse initially and require shared background information, EQC questions exhibit more flexibility and can contain ordering intentions.

This chapter analyzes the linguistic connections between social identities in the region of Cusco, Peru. The investigator conducted sociolinguistic interviews to learn how indigenous people in the LGBTQ+ community use Andean features to express themselves and index their identity. The features studied are the use of pues, the use of gerunds, the use of diminutives, and the use of lo as an arch morpheme. The goal in this study is to analyze how participants’ use of Andean features in Spanish correlates with their self-identified gender and sexuality. The results show that the LGBTQ+ participants used fewer Andean features on average, and it is possible that this is due to the association of rural spaces and Quechua speakers with a perceived higher rate of discrimination against those who do not follow the expectations of gender performance and sexuality of their community. However, it is not as simple as an urban or rural divide because each community has their own history and values that shape these expectations. Though this study is exploratory in scope, we hope to encourage further research regarding the relationship between language and identity in lesser-studied communities and intersections of marginalized identities.

The present investigation explores U.S. Spanish teachers’ general opinions, usage, and teaching of innovative gender-inclusive morphology (e.g., -@s, -xs, -es) in comparison to the standard, binary forms -os and doubling (-os/-as). While previous studies have revealed that gender identity, age, level of education, geographic location, and native language correlate with opinions and patterns of usage (Michnowicz et al., 2023; Noe-Bustamonte et al., 2020; Pesce & Etchezahar, 2019; Slemp, 2020), considerably less research has addressed how teachers perceive and use these forms (Fuentes & Gómez Soler, 2023; Hiers, 2022; Lomotey, 2020). Analyses of responses to an online questionnaire distributed to 128 U.S. Spanish teachers revealed that women and non-native speakers of Spanish had the most positive opinions regarding innovative inclusive forms. Additionally, non-native speakers of Spanish reported significantly greater usage and teaching of the innovative morphemes in comparison to the native speakers and heritage speakers of Spanish. Finally, assessment of preferences on when to introduce (innovative) gender-inclusive morphology revealed that while most teachers preferred that forms be introduced early (i.e., elementary, first-year courses), nearly half of the native speakers indicated that these forms should never be taught. Together, these results suggest that (1) positive attitudes toward innovative morphological forms do not necessarily result in frequent usage or instruction, and (2) non-native speakers of Spanish are the leaders in promoting the teaching of innovative forms in the United States. The importance of these findings is discussed in relation to Spanish language pedagogy and program administration in the United States.

Numerous studies report an inverse relationship between general foreign language anxiety (FLA) and language achievement (e.g., Chastain, 1975; Gregersen, 2020), as well as between task anxiety (TA) and diminished overall performance (Chastain, 1975; Salehi & Marefat, 2014). Few studies, however, investigate anxiety’s impact on specific aspects of linguistic performance, such as accuracy, syntactic complexity, or lexical diversity. This project addresses this gap by exploring how the complexity, accuracy, and fluency of written texts produced by intermediate second language learners of Spanish vary according to the writer’s general FLA and TA. Sixty-one fourth-semester students of Spanish completed the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope, 1986) and pre- and post-task questionnaires in addition to writing five texts as part of a summative course proficiency assessment. Participants’ texts were assigned a holistic rating based upon four criteria — task fulfillment (length), vocabulary (breadth), discourse (organization), and use of present and past time frames — in an institutional proficiency assessment rubric; texts were coded for eight measures of complexity, accuracy, and fluency that aligned with the rubric criteria. A series of linear regression models were run and results revealed that TA, as opposed to FLA, demonstrated a more consistent relationship with linguistic performance on the writing task; higher levels of TA were associated with greater accuracy and lexical diversity but lower fluency. The discussion explores the complex interplay of anxiety and linguistic performance and considers implications of the findings for the interpretation of learner performance on instructional and research tasks.

This chapter investigates the relationship between several extralinguistic dimensions of the bilingual profile and lexical retrieval. Specifically, we tested the accuracy and timing of heritage Spanish-English speakers’ picture-naming abilities using a standardized assessment called the Multilingual Naming Task (MINT; Gollan et al., 2012). Participants provided information about their linguistic history and experiences through the Bilingual Language Profile (BLP; Birdsong et al., 2012), which quantifies language dominance, self-rated proficiency, language usage, and attitudes. Through a series of generalized mixed effects models (GLMM), these variables were examined as predictors in the speed of retrieval.

The present study examines the use and interpretation of the infinitive form by English-speaking second language (L2) learners of Spanish. We investigated infinitive forms in subject position and as objects of prepositions via an elicited production task and a contextualized preference task. Results showed high rates of infinitive forms in both subject and object positions in production; however, the receptive data showed higher preference for gerund forms in lieu of the infinitive. Proficiency and language experience modulated the probability of expected response. This was particularly the case in the preference task, where L2 learners with intermediate proficiency showed a marked preference for the gerund form. The findings suggest patterns of crosslinguistic influence as well as proficiency and task effects in the use and interpretation of infinitive forms in L2 Spanish.

Generally, heritage language research has primarily focused on morphosyntax (Potowski, 2018), whereas phonological aspects have not been extensively studied. Recently, studies on heritage phonology have gained traction (Cogliu et al., 2024; Menke, 2018), with some research suggesting that transfer can impact acquisition and production (Lleó, 2018). Further, previous studies involving heritage phonology did not utilize a bilingual dominance assessment tool, such as the Bilingual Language Profile (BLP; Birdsong et al., 2012), to examine the relationship between language dominance and young heritage phonological development for both the tap and trill in Spanish. The current study aims to fill the gap by focusing on rhotic production of early heritage speakers (HSs), as rhotics have been documented as causing difficulty in production (Kissling, 2018; Mendoza, 2000). Thirty-six Spanish–English HSs ages 6 to 9 participated in the study, completing a delayed-repetition task (Casillas, 2019) in Spanish with auditory stimuli, primed with sentences containing /r/ or /ɾ/. Data analysis consisted of logistic mixed models (Bates et al., 2014). Results revealed that these HSs generally produced taps in expected contexts, but often produced taps instead of trills where trills are expected, with some additional unexpected variation for trills. Further, results indicate that age was a better predictor of accuracy for rhotic production than Spanish dominance. Following the findings, we discuss pedagogical implications for young HSs.

This study investigates the discrimination and production patterns of native Spanish speaking learners of English in acquiring a novel contrast, /t͡ʃ/-/ʃ/. While many Spanish dialects produce /t͡ʃ/ with the single allophone [t͡ʃ], some dialects produce [t͡ʃ] and [ʃ] in non-phonologically conditioned variation for /t͡ʃ/, which may lead to increased difficulty in acquiring the contrast. We investigated the effect of this variation in both perception and production of English /t͡ʃ/-/ʃ/. Higher rates of variation in the native language led to decreased discrimination and production accuracy in the second language (L2) for /t͡ʃ/; however, L2 /ʃ/ productions were highly accurate. These findings suggest that severing the perceptual association of phones in variation for the same category is a more difficult task than creating a new category.

This study seeks to determine whether an Argentine regional variant of /r/, [ɹ̌], is perceptually confusable with the postalveolar fricative allophones of /ʝ/, [ʃ], and [ʒ], and to examine the degree to which the factors of regional origin and dialect contact affect the perception of these phones. The acoustic similarity between [ɹ̌] and the fricative allophones [ʃ] and [ʒ] raises the possibility that these variants are perceptually confusable to native speakers. We employed a perception task across two regional dialect groups (Argentines and Spaniards) to examine this possibility. We found that both Argentines and Spaniards frequently misidentify [ɹ̌] as the segments represented orthographically as <y> or <ll>. Further, our data revealed significant effects of regional origin and dialect contact, though no evidence of a two-way confusion between [ɹ̌] and either postalveolar fricative was found. We follow up with an analysis and interpretation of the main findings, discussing how they both align with and differ from previous work on cross-dialectal perception.

Linguistic inquiry into the speech practices of U.S. Salvadorans living in the American West and Southwest reveals patterns of morphosyntactic (Lipski, 1988; Woods & Shin, 2016) and sociophonetic accommodation (Aaron & Hernández, 2007; Raymond, 2012) in dialectal contact settings. Most research to date has focused on salient or stigmatized features. This sociophonetic study explores Spanish /b/ — specifically, limited spirantization and labiodentalization — in the speech of 17 U.S. Salvadorans who participated in sociolinguistic interviews from the Spanish in Boston Project (Erker, 2025). Speakers of LS dialects (Campos-Astorkiza, 2018), including those of Central American varieties (Carrasco et al., 2012), produce voiced stops where approximants are expected (e.g., el vaso ‘the glass’ [el.ˈba.so] rather than [el.ˈβa.so]). This pattern persists even when syllable-final /s/ is aspirated or elided (e.g., los vasos [loɦ.ˈba.sos]; Amastae, 1989). While phonetic context is the strongest predictor of spirantization patterns (Eddington, 2011), research shows that labiodentalization (e.g., el vaso [el.ˈva.so]) is influenced by orthography, task type, gender, writing proficiency, time in the U.S., and stress (Chappell, 2019; Helms et al., 2022; Ortega, 2018; Stevens, 2000; Trovato, 2017). Using a variationist approach, this study examines how linguistic and social factors shape (a) manner and place of articulation (MOA and POA, respectively) and (b) degree of constriction via consonant-vowel intensity ratios (CVIRs). Results show that LS persists, with preceding liquids marking a site of potential change. Labiodentals occur across <b> and <v> contexts. Preceding sound, age, syllable stress, word position, orthography, and percent of life in the U.S. (PLUS; Erker & Otheguy, 2021) shape production patterns.

The current study investigates the possibility of contact with Quechua influencing potentially higher rates of obstruent production in Peru. Using a variationist sociolinguistic approach, we analyzed intensity differences of intervocalic /d/ in Praat (Boersma & Weenink, 2023) in sociolinguistic interviews collected from 50 participants from the Andean region near Cuzco, as well as across three migrant generations in Lima and from “classic” working class Limeños. The aim is to identify the linguistic and social factors that influence the degree of intervocalic /d/ spirantization among Spanish speakers in Peru and determine whether contact with Quechua plays a role in this variation. Preliminary analysis reveals that bilingual speakers and first-generation Andean migrants in Lima produce intervocalic /d/ with significantly higher levels of occlusion than monolingual Spanish speakers of non-Andean origin. We hypothesize that the lack of voiced /d/, as well as the absence of spirantization as a phonetic process in Cuzco Quechua, inhibit, to a certain extent, the degree of spirantization in the speech of those speakers with more contact with Quechua.

Several sociolinguistic studies on the province of Málaga have focused primarily on the capital, often excluding adjacent areas that may exhibit different sociolinguistic behaviors. Taking final /s/ in coda position as the primary object of study, the present work aims to contribute to our understanding of how this variable is produced across this region of Spain. Furthermore, this project addresses the limitation of focusing solely on the capital to determine whether observed patterns are consistent across the province, or if significant differences exist in other municipalities. The data consist of 36 sociolinguistic interviews recorded by native speakers of Spanish (18 males and 18 females) from three areas of the province: Málaga capital, Rincón de la Victoria, and Vélez Málaga. In addition to interviews, the data include readings of a text and word list and a sociodemographic questionnaire. In total, 15,548 occurrences of syllable-final /s/ were extracted in word-internal and word-final position and were analyzed according to their realization (maintenance or aspiration). The overall results of this research show that /s/ aspiration clearly dominates in this region, but /s/ maintenance is likely increasing given how /s/ pronunciation was conditioned by region, gender, age, and level of education, especially in the capital of Málaga among middle-aged women with higher education. These results support the claim that realized /s/ is the prestige variant since it is used among groups that socially tend to show a preference for less stigmatized forms.

The Spanish comparative correlative (CC) is a biclausal construction (e.g., [Cuanto más leo,]_C1 [tanto más entiendo]_C2) that is characterized by complex semantics and form. Previous studies have tried to account for it with maximally abstract rules. I present a corpus study, based on over 3,300 CC tokens from the Spanish Web 2018 corpus (Kilgarriff & Renau, 2013), whose results have implications for such analyses. Applying Hoffmann et al.’s (2019) methodology and expanding on my previous study on Spanish CCs (Horsch, 2024), I employ covarying-collexeme analysis (Stefanowitsch & Gries, 2005, pp. 9–11) to detect cross-clausal associations between the two subclauses, C1 and C2. The results show statistically significant formal interdependencies between C1 and C2 — that is, what happens formally/syntactically in C1 influences what happens formally/syntactically in C1, and vice versa. In light of these findings, I argue that maximally abstract rules are insufficient for modeling the Spanish CC. Rather, the results indicate the existence of an elaborate network of interconnected constructions of varying degrees of abstractness. This network corresponds to the tenets of usage-based construction grammar, an approach that assumes that linguistic knowledge can be modeled as a complex network that, in the words of Traugott and Trousdale (2013), is “baroque, involving massive redundancy and vastly rich detail” (p. 53).

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.

In this paper, we explore the syntactic and semantic properties of universal todo in Spanish, focusing on its different properties when combined with bare nouns and definite DPs. Our analysis challenges the traditional view that treats these variants of todo as a single element, proposing instead a non-unified analysis. More specifically, we argue that todo in Spanish comprises two distinct elements: todo-QDet, a universal quantifier analogous to English every, and todo-OP, a maximality operator similar to English all. We show that todo-OP and todo-QDet differ with respect to their combinatorial possibilities, their ability to float, the possibility of collective readings, and the availability of domain restriction. We then put forth a formal semantic analysis for todo-QDet and todo-OP that accounts for these differences. More specifically, we argue that todo-QDet is a quantifier that does not include a domain restriction variable, whereas todo-OP is an operator that rules out the non-maximality reading of plurals.

The focus of this paper is the phenomenon of semantic variation in two varieties of Argentine Spanish in the domain of events of material separation (cutting and breaking [C&B]) (Bohnemeyer et al., 2001). Variation in this domain has been explored cross-linguistically (Jameson & Webster, 2019; Majid et al., 2008; Pye et al., 1995) and diachronically within one language (Du et al., 2020), but semantic typological variation across regional varieties remains underexplored. This paper explores the merits of applying typological methods designed for cross-linguistic comparison to different varieties of one language. Cross-linguistic variation in the domain of C&B has been well-attested in semantic typology. However, studies of the meaning and extension of lexis have yet to be traditionally applied to interspeaker variation (Robinson, 2012). Given the blurred distinctions between “language” and “variety” (McWhorter, 2016), it is possible that semantic variation exists for different varieties of the same language. Indeed, semantic variation is attested in Spanish present perfect constructions (Ocampo, 2008). Additionally, it is essential to consider typological universals when exploring local differentiation in a language (Tagliamonte & Jankowski, 2023). For this study, data were collected from speakers of the Cordobés and Rioplatense varieties of Spanish using the stimuli of a series of 28 video clips depicting various events of material separation developed by Bohnemeyer et al. (2001). A total of 18 participants (11 female, 7 male, aged 18–54) viewed each video clip and were then asked to describe the event verbally. The data were coded for primary and secondary verb choice, demographic information (age, participant origin, education level, second language, etc.), and information on the response stimuli (instrument, manner, etc.). Preliminary results indicate a possible distinction between Cordobés and Rioplatense in the categorization of C&B events, though a more in-depth study with a larger sample size is needed to obtain conclusive results.

This paper examines cleft questions in Nariñense Andean Spanish (NAS) especially focusing on wh-es que-cleft (EQC) questions — constructions that allow wh-phrases to be separated from their matrix clause through the insertion of the cluster ser que [be that]. We provide a crosslinguistic overview comparing EQC questions in French, Portuguese, and NAS. Following morphosyntactic properties, we propose a bi-clausal syntactic analysis couched in a Minimalist approach that accounts for EQC questions in NAS. We also provide empirical evidence that explains semantic-pragmatic differences between pseudo-cleft (PC) and EQC questions. Our observations reveal semantic and syntactic restrictions that allow EQC but not PC questions. Although both clefts are infelicitous discourse initially and require shared background information, EQC questions exhibit more flexibility and can contain ordering intentions.

This chapter analyzes the linguistic connections between social identities in the region of Cusco, Peru. The investigator conducted sociolinguistic interviews to learn how indigenous people in the LGBTQ+ community use Andean features to express themselves and index their identity. The features studied are the use of pues, the use of gerunds, the use of diminutives, and the use of lo as an arch morpheme. The goal in this study is to analyze how participants’ use of Andean features in Spanish correlates with their self-identified gender and sexuality. The results show that the LGBTQ+ participants used fewer Andean features on average, and it is possible that this is due to the association of rural spaces and Quechua speakers with a perceived higher rate of discrimination against those who do not follow the expectations of gender performance and sexuality of their community. However, it is not as simple as an urban or rural divide because each community has their own history and values that shape these expectations. Though this study is exploratory in scope, we hope to encourage further research regarding the relationship between language and identity in lesser-studied communities and intersections of marginalized identities.

The present investigation explores U.S. Spanish teachers’ general opinions, usage, and teaching of innovative gender-inclusive morphology (e.g., -@s, -xs, -es) in comparison to the standard, binary forms -os and doubling (-os/-as). While previous studies have revealed that gender identity, age, level of education, geographic location, and native language correlate with opinions and patterns of usage (Michnowicz et al., 2023; Noe-Bustamonte et al., 2020; Pesce & Etchezahar, 2019; Slemp, 2020), considerably less research has addressed how teachers perceive and use these forms (Fuentes & Gómez Soler, 2023; Hiers, 2022; Lomotey, 2020). Analyses of responses to an online questionnaire distributed to 128 U.S. Spanish teachers revealed that women and non-native speakers of Spanish had the most positive opinions regarding innovative inclusive forms. Additionally, non-native speakers of Spanish reported significantly greater usage and teaching of the innovative morphemes in comparison to the native speakers and heritage speakers of Spanish. Finally, assessment of preferences on when to introduce (innovative) gender-inclusive morphology revealed that while most teachers preferred that forms be introduced early (i.e., elementary, first-year courses), nearly half of the native speakers indicated that these forms should never be taught. Together, these results suggest that (1) positive attitudes toward innovative morphological forms do not necessarily result in frequent usage or instruction, and (2) non-native speakers of Spanish are the leaders in promoting the teaching of innovative forms in the United States. The importance of these findings is discussed in relation to Spanish language pedagogy and program administration in the United States.

Numerous studies report an inverse relationship between general foreign language anxiety (FLA) and language achievement (e.g., Chastain, 1975; Gregersen, 2020), as well as between task anxiety (TA) and diminished overall performance (Chastain, 1975; Salehi & Marefat, 2014). Few studies, however, investigate anxiety’s impact on specific aspects of linguistic performance, such as accuracy, syntactic complexity, or lexical diversity. This project addresses this gap by exploring how the complexity, accuracy, and fluency of written texts produced by intermediate second language learners of Spanish vary according to the writer’s general FLA and TA. Sixty-one fourth-semester students of Spanish completed the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope, 1986) and pre- and post-task questionnaires in addition to writing five texts as part of a summative course proficiency assessment. Participants’ texts were assigned a holistic rating based upon four criteria — task fulfillment (length), vocabulary (breadth), discourse (organization), and use of present and past time frames — in an institutional proficiency assessment rubric; texts were coded for eight measures of complexity, accuracy, and fluency that aligned with the rubric criteria. A series of linear regression models were run and results revealed that TA, as opposed to FLA, demonstrated a more consistent relationship with linguistic performance on the writing task; higher levels of TA were associated with greater accuracy and lexical diversity but lower fluency. The discussion explores the complex interplay of anxiety and linguistic performance and considers implications of the findings for the interpretation of learner performance on instructional and research tasks.

This chapter investigates the relationship between several extralinguistic dimensions of the bilingual profile and lexical retrieval. Specifically, we tested the accuracy and timing of heritage Spanish-English speakers’ picture-naming abilities using a standardized assessment called the Multilingual Naming Task (MINT; Gollan et al., 2012). Participants provided information about their linguistic history and experiences through the Bilingual Language Profile (BLP; Birdsong et al., 2012), which quantifies language dominance, self-rated proficiency, language usage, and attitudes. Through a series of generalized mixed effects models (GLMM), these variables were examined as predictors in the speed of retrieval.

The present study examines the use and interpretation of the infinitive form by English-speaking second language (L2) learners of Spanish. We investigated infinitive forms in subject position and as objects of prepositions via an elicited production task and a contextualized preference task. Results showed high rates of infinitive forms in both subject and object positions in production; however, the receptive data showed higher preference for gerund forms in lieu of the infinitive. Proficiency and language experience modulated the probability of expected response. This was particularly the case in the preference task, where L2 learners with intermediate proficiency showed a marked preference for the gerund form. The findings suggest patterns of crosslinguistic influence as well as proficiency and task effects in the use and interpretation of infinitive forms in L2 Spanish.

Generally, heritage language research has primarily focused on morphosyntax (Potowski, 2018), whereas phonological aspects have not been extensively studied. Recently, studies on heritage phonology have gained traction (Cogliu et al., 2024; Menke, 2018), with some research suggesting that transfer can impact acquisition and production (Lleó, 2018). Further, previous studies involving heritage phonology did not utilize a bilingual dominance assessment tool, such as the Bilingual Language Profile (BLP; Birdsong et al., 2012), to examine the relationship between language dominance and young heritage phonological development for both the tap and trill in Spanish. The current study aims to fill the gap by focusing on rhotic production of early heritage speakers (HSs), as rhotics have been documented as causing difficulty in production (Kissling, 2018; Mendoza, 2000). Thirty-six Spanish–English HSs ages 6 to 9 participated in the study, completing a delayed-repetition task (Casillas, 2019) in Spanish with auditory stimuli, primed with sentences containing /r/ or /ɾ/. Data analysis consisted of logistic mixed models (Bates et al., 2014). Results revealed that these HSs generally produced taps in expected contexts, but often produced taps instead of trills where trills are expected, with some additional unexpected variation for trills. Further, results indicate that age was a better predictor of accuracy for rhotic production than Spanish dominance. Following the findings, we discuss pedagogical implications for young HSs.

This study investigates the discrimination and production patterns of native Spanish speaking learners of English in acquiring a novel contrast, /t͡ʃ/-/ʃ/. While many Spanish dialects produce /t͡ʃ/ with the single allophone [t͡ʃ], some dialects produce [t͡ʃ] and [ʃ] in non-phonologically conditioned variation for /t͡ʃ/, which may lead to increased difficulty in acquiring the contrast. We investigated the effect of this variation in both perception and production of English /t͡ʃ/-/ʃ/. Higher rates of variation in the native language led to decreased discrimination and production accuracy in the second language (L2) for /t͡ʃ/; however, L2 /ʃ/ productions were highly accurate. These findings suggest that severing the perceptual association of phones in variation for the same category is a more difficult task than creating a new category.

This study seeks to determine whether an Argentine regional variant of /r/, [ɹ̌], is perceptually confusable with the postalveolar fricative allophones of /ʝ/, [ʃ], and [ʒ], and to examine the degree to which the factors of regional origin and dialect contact affect the perception of these phones. The acoustic similarity between [ɹ̌] and the fricative allophones [ʃ] and [ʒ] raises the possibility that these variants are perceptually confusable to native speakers. We employed a perception task across two regional dialect groups (Argentines and Spaniards) to examine this possibility. We found that both Argentines and Spaniards frequently misidentify [ɹ̌] as the segments represented orthographically as <y> or <ll>. Further, our data revealed significant effects of regional origin and dialect contact, though no evidence of a two-way confusion between [ɹ̌] and either postalveolar fricative was found. We follow up with an analysis and interpretation of the main findings, discussing how they both align with and differ from previous work on cross-dialectal perception.

Linguistic inquiry into the speech practices of U.S. Salvadorans living in the American West and Southwest reveals patterns of morphosyntactic (Lipski, 1988; Woods & Shin, 2016) and sociophonetic accommodation (Aaron & Hernández, 2007; Raymond, 2012) in dialectal contact settings. Most research to date has focused on salient or stigmatized features. This sociophonetic study explores Spanish /b/ — specifically, limited spirantization and labiodentalization — in the speech of 17 U.S. Salvadorans who participated in sociolinguistic interviews from the Spanish in Boston Project (Erker, 2025). Speakers of LS dialects (Campos-Astorkiza, 2018), including those of Central American varieties (Carrasco et al., 2012), produce voiced stops where approximants are expected (e.g., el vaso ‘the glass’ [el.ˈba.so] rather than [el.ˈβa.so]). This pattern persists even when syllable-final /s/ is aspirated or elided (e.g., los vasos [loɦ.ˈba.sos]; Amastae, 1989). While phonetic context is the strongest predictor of spirantization patterns (Eddington, 2011), research shows that labiodentalization (e.g., el vaso [el.ˈva.so]) is influenced by orthography, task type, gender, writing proficiency, time in the U.S., and stress (Chappell, 2019; Helms et al., 2022; Ortega, 2018; Stevens, 2000; Trovato, 2017). Using a variationist approach, this study examines how linguistic and social factors shape (a) manner and place of articulation (MOA and POA, respectively) and (b) degree of constriction via consonant-vowel intensity ratios (CVIRs). Results show that LS persists, with preceding liquids marking a site of potential change. Labiodentals occur across <b> and <v> contexts. Preceding sound, age, syllable stress, word position, orthography, and percent of life in the U.S. (PLUS; Erker & Otheguy, 2021) shape production patterns.

The current study investigates the possibility of contact with Quechua influencing potentially higher rates of obstruent production in Peru. Using a variationist sociolinguistic approach, we analyzed intensity differences of intervocalic /d/ in Praat (Boersma & Weenink, 2023) in sociolinguistic interviews collected from 50 participants from the Andean region near Cuzco, as well as across three migrant generations in Lima and from “classic” working class Limeños. The aim is to identify the linguistic and social factors that influence the degree of intervocalic /d/ spirantization among Spanish speakers in Peru and determine whether contact with Quechua plays a role in this variation. Preliminary analysis reveals that bilingual speakers and first-generation Andean migrants in Lima produce intervocalic /d/ with significantly higher levels of occlusion than monolingual Spanish speakers of non-Andean origin. We hypothesize that the lack of voiced /d/, as well as the absence of spirantization as a phonetic process in Cuzco Quechua, inhibit, to a certain extent, the degree of spirantization in the speech of those speakers with more contact with Quechua.

Several sociolinguistic studies on the province of Málaga have focused primarily on the capital, often excluding adjacent areas that may exhibit different sociolinguistic behaviors. Taking final /s/ in coda position as the primary object of study, the present work aims to contribute to our understanding of how this variable is produced across this region of Spain. Furthermore, this project addresses the limitation of focusing solely on the capital to determine whether observed patterns are consistent across the province, or if significant differences exist in other municipalities. The data consist of 36 sociolinguistic interviews recorded by native speakers of Spanish (18 males and 18 females) from three areas of the province: Málaga capital, Rincón de la Victoria, and Vélez Málaga. In addition to interviews, the data include readings of a text and word list and a sociodemographic questionnaire. In total, 15,548 occurrences of syllable-final /s/ were extracted in word-internal and word-final position and were analyzed according to their realization (maintenance or aspiration). The overall results of this research show that /s/ aspiration clearly dominates in this region, but /s/ maintenance is likely increasing given how /s/ pronunciation was conditioned by region, gender, age, and level of education, especially in the capital of Málaga among middle-aged women with higher education. These results support the claim that realized /s/ is the prestige variant since it is used among groups that socially tend to show a preference for less stigmatized forms.