Cover not available
Article published In:
Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism
Vol. 2:1 (2012) ► pp.25–53

Modeling morphological variation and development

Person and number in L2 Spanish

| George Mason University

This paper proposes a model of morphological variation and development grounded in feature-geometric theory. It tests two hypotheses that follow from this model on a corpus of data from speakers of Spanish as a second language (L2). First, variation is systematic; default, underspecified feature values are adopted when errors occur. This hypothesis is supported for person, number, and finiteness, as 3rd, singular, and nonfinite defaults surface in place of 1st, plural, and finite verbs. Second, developmental trends are observed as nodes are added to the geometry; the unmarked/less specified feature value is successfully produced prior to the marked/more specified one. This hypothesis is partially supported, as accuracy in 3rd person emerges prior to 1st. However, no developmental pattern is found for number. Errors in finiteness are limited to lower-proficiency speakers, whereas intermediate speakers favor 3rd person, finite defaults. Together, these results suggest systematic variation and gradual development in the morphology.

Keywords: second language morphology, inflectional morphology, person agreement, number agreement, morphological development, variation
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Morphological variability from syntax to features
  • 3.The linguistic domain
    • 3.1Person, number, and finiteness in Spanish
    • 3.2Verb agreement in L2 Spanish
    • 3.3A model of variation and development
  • 4.Hypotheses
  • 5.Method
    • 5.1Coding procedure
    • 5.2Exclusions
  • 6.Results
    • 6.1Overview of substitutions
    • 6.2Feature effects and the repeated measures
      • 6.2.1Person
      • 6.2.2Number
      • 6.2.3Finiteness
    • 6.3Group effects
      • 6.3.1Person
      • 6.3.2Number
      • 6.3.3Finiteness
  • 7.Discussion
  • 8.The missing-r analysis
    • 8.1Type 1: Missing -r
    • 8.2Type 2: Past
    • 8.3Type 3: Stem-changing
    • 8.4Type 4: Suppletive
    • 8.5Type 5: Plural agreement
    • 8.6Type 6: Present indicative of -ir class
  • 9.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 10 February 2012
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.2.1.02mcc
References
Adger, D.
(2006)  Combinatorial variability. Journal of Linguistics, 42(3), 503–530. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Aguado-Orea, J.J.
(2004) The Acquisition of Morpho-syntax in Spanish: Implications for Current Theories of Development. PhD dissertation, University of Nottingham.
Brown, C.
(1997) The acquisition of segmental structure: Consequences for speech perception and second language acquisition. Unpublished PhD dissertation, McGill University.
Brown, R.
(1973) A First Language: The Early Stages. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bruhn de Garavito, J.
(2003a) The (dis)association between morphology and syntax: The case of L2 Spanish. In S.A. Montrul & F. Ordóñez (Eds.), Linguistic Theory and Language Development in Hispanic Languages (pp. 398–417). Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
(2003b) Learners’ competence may be more accurate than we think: Spanish L2 and agreement morphology. In J.M. Liceras, H. Zobl, & H. Goodluck (Eds.), Proceedings of the 6th Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition (GASLA 2006) (pp. 17–23). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
CHILDES: Child Data Language Exchange System
n.d.) Electronic resource: [URL] .
Clahsen, H., Penke, M., & Parodi, T.
(1993/1994) Functional categories in early child German. Language Acquisition, 3(4), 395–429. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cowper, E.
(2005) The geometry of interpretable features: Infl in English and Spanish. Language, 81(1), 10–46. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dulay, H., & Burt, M.
(1974) Natural sequences in child second language acquisition. Language Learning, 24(1), 37–53. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Greenberg, J.H.
(1966) Language Universals with Special Reference to Feature Hierarchies. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Grimshaw, J.
(1994) Minimal projection and clause structure. In B. Lust, M. Suñer, & J. Whiteman, (Eds.), Syntactic Theory and First Language Acquisition: Cross-linguistic Perspectives, Volume 1 (pp. 75–83). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Halle, M., & Marantz, A.
(1993) Distributed Morphology and the pieces of inflection. In K. Hale & S.J. Keyser (Eds.), The View from Building 20: Linguistics Essays in Honor of Sylvain Bromberger (pp. 111–176). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Hanson, R., Harley, R., & Ritter, E.
(2000) Underspecification and universal defaults for person and number features. In Proceedings of the 2000 Canadian Linguistics Association. University of Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics. Electronic resource: [URL] (3 December 2010).
Harley, H., & Ritter, E.
(2002) Person and number in pronouns: A feature-geometric analysis. Language, 78(3), 482–526. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hawkins, R., & Casillas, G.
(2008) Explaining frequency of verb morphology in early L2 speech. Lingua, 118(4), 595–612. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hawkins, R., & Chan, C.Y.
(1997) The partial availability of universal grammar in second language acquisition: The ‘Failed Functional Features Hypothesis.’ Second Language Research, 13(3), 187–226. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haznedar, B., & Schwartz, B.
(1997) Are there optional infinitives in child L2 acquisition? In E. Hughes, M. Hughes, & A. Greenhill (Eds.), Proceedings of the 21st Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (BUCLD) (pp. 293–306). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Herschensohn, J.
(2001)  Missing inflection in L2 French: Accidental infinitives and other verbal deficits. Second Language Research, 17(3), 273–305. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Labov, W.
(1972) Sociolinguistic Patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Lardiere, D.
(1998a) Case and tense in the ‘fossilized’ steady state. Second Language Research, 14(1), 1–26. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1998b) Dissociating syntax from morphology in a divergent L2 end-state grammar. Second Language Research, 14(4), 359–375. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2005) On morphological competence. In L. Dekydtspotter, R.A. Sprouse, & A. Liljestrand (Eds.), Proceedings of the 7th Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition (GASLA 2004) (pp. 178–192). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.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
Major, R.C.
(2004) Gender and stylistic variation in second language phonology. Language Variation and Change, 16(3), 169–188. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McCarthy, C.
(2007) Morphological variability in second language Spanish. Unpublished PhD dissertation, McGill University.
(2008) Morphological variability in the comprehension of agreement: An argument for representation over computation. Second Language Research, 24(4), 459–486. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mezzano, G.
(2003) The development of Spanish verbal inflection in early stages of L2 acquisition. Undergraduate honors thesis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Google Scholar
Müller, N.
(1998) UG access without parameter setting: A longitudinal study of (L1 Italian) German as a second language. In M.L. Beck (Ed.), Morphology and its Interfaces in Second Language Knowledge (pp. 115–164). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nevins, A., & Parrott, J.K.
(2010) Variable rules meet Impoverishment theory: Patterns of agreement leveling in English varieties. Lingua, 120(5), 1135–1159. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Oltra-Massuet, I., & Arregi, K.
(2005) Stress-by-structure in Spanish. Linguistic Inquiry, 36(1), 43–84. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Preston, D.R.
(1989) Sociolinguistics and Second Language Acquisition. New York: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Prévost, P., & White, L.
(2000) Missing Surface Inflection or Impairment in second language acquisition? Evidence from tense and agreement. Second Language Research, 16(2),103–133. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sauerland, U.
(2008) On the semantic markedness of Phi-features. In D. Harbour, D. Adger, & S. Béjar (Eds.), Phi Theory: Phi- Features across Modules and Interfaces (pp. 57–82). New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sauerland, U., Anderssen, J., & Yatsushiro, K.
(2005) The plural is semantically unmarked. In S. Kesper & M. Reis (Eds.), Linguistic Evidence: Empirical, Theoretical, and Computational Perspectives (pp. 413–434). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Slabakova, R.
(2009) How is inflectional morphology learned? EuroSLA Yearbook, 9(1), 56–75. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Spanish Learner Language Oral Corpora (SPLLOC)
(2010) SPLLOC2 Guided Interview task. Retrieved from <[URL]>,<[URL]> (9 July 2010).
Suda, K., & Wakabayashi, S.
(2007) The acquisition of pronominal case-marking by Japanese learners of English. Second Language Research, 23(2), 179–214. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tarone, E.E.
(1982) Systematicity and attention in interlanguage. Language Learning, 32(1), 69–84. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1983)  On the variability of interlanguage systems. Applied Linguistics, 4(2), 142–164. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1985) Variability in interlanguage use: A study of style-shifting in morphology and syntax. Language Learning, 35(3), 373–403. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vainikka, A.
(1993/1994) Case in the development of English syntax. Language Acquisition, 3(3), 257–325. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vainikka, A., & Young-Scholten, M.
(1994) Direct access to X’-theory: Evidence from Korean and Turkish adults learning German. In T. Hoekstra & B.D. Schwartz (Eds.), Language Acquisition Studies in Generative Grammar (pp. 265–316). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1996) Gradual development of L2 phrase structure. Second Language Research, 12(1), 7–39. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
White, L., Valenzuela, E., Kozlowska-Macgregor, M., & Leung, Y.k.I.
(2004) Gender and number agreement in nonnative Spanish. Applied Psycholinguistics, 25(1), 105–133. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 12 other publications

Alarcón, Irma
2021. Adjectival and verbal agreement in the oral production of early and late bilinguals. Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics 34:2 ► pp. 371 ff. DOI logo
Bañón, José Alemán, David Miller & Jason Rothman
2021. EXAMINING THE CONTRIBUTION OF MARKEDNESS TO THE L2 PROCESSING OF SPANISH PERSON AGREEMENT. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 43:4 ► pp. 699 ff. DOI logo
Blom, Elma, Vasiliki Chondrogianni, Theodoros Marinis & Nada Vasić
2016. The acquisition of verbal paradigms in Dutch and Greek L2 children: Cross-linguistic differences and inflectional defaults. International Journal of Bilingualism 20:4 ► pp. 386 ff. DOI logo
Chondrogianni, Vasiliki & Nada Vasić
2016. Cross-linguistic aspects in child L2 acquisition. International Journal of Bilingualism 20:4 ► pp. 361 ff. DOI logo
Covey, Lauren, Alison Gabriele & Robert Fiorentino
2018. Can learners use morphosyntactic cues to facilitate processing? Evidence from a study of gender agreement in Hindi. Language Acquisition 25:3 ► pp. 327 ff. DOI logo
Di Pisa, Grazia, Sergio Miguel Pereira Soares, Jason Rothman & Theodoros Marinis
2024. Being a heritage speaker matters: the role of markedness in subject-verb person agreement in Italian. Frontiers in Psychology 15 DOI logo
Hopp, Holger & Mayra E. León Arriaga
2016. Structural and inherent case in the non-native processing of Spanish: Constraints on inflectional variability. Second Language Research 32:1 ► pp. 75 ff. DOI logo
Hwang, Sun Hee & Donna Lardiere
2013. Plural-marking in L2 Korean: A feature-based approach. Second Language Research 29:1 ► pp. 57 ff. DOI logo
Prego, Beatriz López & Alison Gabriele
2014.  Examining the impact of task demands on morphological variability in native and non-native Spanish*. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 4:2 ► pp. 192 ff. DOI logo
Romano, Francesco Bryan
2017. Morphological variability in L2 Italian. ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics 168:2 ► pp. 203 ff. DOI logo
Rothman, Jason & Diego Pascual y Cabo
2013. Generative Approaches to Spanish Second Language Acquisition. In The Handbook of Spanish Second Language Acquisition, ► pp. 46 ff. DOI logo
Slabakova, Roumyana
2018. Inflectional Morphology. In The Handbook of Advanced Proficiency in Second Language Acquisition, ► pp. 381 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 2 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.