Chapter 4
Testing interface and frequency hypotheses
Bilingual children’s acquisition of Spanish subject pronoun
expression
The Interface Hypothesis predicts that
syntax-discourse interface features are acquired later than features
involving the interface between syntax and other components of
grammar. The Frequency Hypothesis predicts that frequent grammatical
patterns are acquired earlier than infrequent ones. This study tests
these hypotheses by examining Spanish subject pronoun expression in
interviews with 28 U.S. bilingual children of Mexican-descent.
Binary logistic regression analyses demonstrate that the children’s
pronoun expression is significantly constrained by switch-reference,
a discourse-pragmatic factor, but not tense/mood/aspect, a
morphological factor. These results do not support the Interface
Hypothesis since the children acquire a discourse-pragmatic
constraint before a morphological one. Instead, frequency effects
can explain the findings: the more frequent the constraint, the
earlier it is acquired.
Article outline
- Introduction
- Discourse and morphological constraints on Spanish subject
pronoun expression
- The Interface Hypothesis and the acquisition of subject pronoun
expression
- The Frequency Hypothesis and the acquisition of subject pronoun
expression
- This study: Subject pronoun expression among school-age children in the
U.S.
- Participants
- Methods
- Results
- Discussion
- Conclusion
-
Acknowledgements
-
Notes
-
References
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Cited by
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Brown, Esther L. & Naomi Shin
2022.
Acquisition of cumulative conditioning effects on words: Spanish-speaking children’s [subject pronoun + verb] usage.
First Language 42:3
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