DOI QR코드

DOI QR Code

The Acquisition of Spanish Clitic Pronouns as a Third Language: A Corpus-based Study

  • Received : 2020.10.30
  • Accepted : 2020.12.16
  • Published : 2020.12.31

Abstract

This corpus-based study investigated third language acquisition by Taiwanese college students in learning Spanish clitic pronouns at beginning and intermediate levels. It examined the acquisition sequences of Spanish clitic pronouns of the Chinese-speaking learners whose second language was English and third language was Spanish. The results indicated that indirect object pronouns (OP) preceded direct OP (case), first person preceded third person OP (person), masculine preceded feminine OP (gender), and animate preceded inanimate OP (animacy). The findings presented similar patterns as those of previous studies on English-speaking learners of Spanish. In further comparisons of the target forms in Chinese, English, and Spanish, the results suggested that L1 Chinese had strong influence on L3 Spanish, which accounts for the challenges that Taiwanese learners of Spanish face as they learn the Spanish clitic pronouns in the beginning stage.

Keywords

References

  1. Andersen, R. W. (1984). The one to one principle of interlanguage construction. Language Learning, 34(4), 77-95. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1984.tb00353.x
  2. Asencion-Delaney, Y., & Collentine, J. (2011). A multidimensional analysis of a written L2 Spanish corpus. Applied Linguistics, 32(3), 299-322. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amq053
  3. Castilla, A. P., & Perez-Leroux, A. T. (2010). Omissions and substitutions in Spanish object clitics: Developmental optionality as a property of the representational system. Language Acquisition, 17(1-2), 2-25. https://doi.org/10.1080/10489221003620904
  4. Chin, D. H. J. (2009). Language transfer in the acquisition of the semantic contrast in L3 Spanish. In Leung, Y-k. I. (Ed.), Third Language Acquisition and Universal Grammar (pp. 30-54). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
  5. De Angelis, G. (2007). Third or Additional Language Acquisition. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
  6. Falk, Y., & Bardel, C. (2011). Object pronouns in German L3 syntax: Evidence for the L2 status factor. Second Language Research, 27(1), 59-82. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267658310386647
  7. Flynn, S., Foley, C., & Vinnitskaya, I. (2004). The cumulative-enhancement model for language acquisition: Comparing adults' and children's patterns of development in first, second and third language acquisition. International Journal of Multilingualism, 1(1), 3-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790710408668175
  8. Garcia Mayo, M. P., & Rothman, J. (2012). L3 morphosyntax in the generative tradition: The initial stages and beyond. In Amaro, J. C., Flynn, S., & Rothman, J. (Eds.), Third Language Acquisition in Adulthood (pp. 9-32). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  9. Granger, S. (2013). Error-tagged learner corpora and CALL: A promising synergy. CALICO Journal, 20(3), 465-480.
  10. Hermas, A. (2010). Language acquisition as computational resetting: Verb movement in L3 initial sate. International Journal of Multilingualism, 7(4), 343-362. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2010.487941
  11. Klee, C. A. (1989). The acquisition of clitic pronouns in the Spanish interlanguage of Peruvian Quechua speakers. Hispania, 72(2), 402-408. https://doi.org/10.2307/343164
  12. Leung, Y-k. I. (2006). Full transfer vs. partial transfer in L2 and L3 acquisition. In Slabakova, R., Montrul, S., & Prevost, P. (Eds.), Inquiries in Linguistic Development: In Honor of Lydia White (pp. 157-188). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  13. Li, C. N., & Thompson, S. A. (1989). Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
  14. LoCoco, V. (1987). Learner comprehension of oral and written sentences in German and Spanish: The importance of word order. In VanPatten, B., Dvorak, T. R. & Lee, J. F. (Eds.), Foreign Language Learning: A Research Perspective (pp. 119-129). Cambridge, NY: Newbury House.
  15. Lozano, C., & Mendikoetxea, A. (2010). Interface conditions on postverbal subjects: a corpus study of L2 English. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 13(4), 475-497. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1366728909990538
  16. Malovrh, P., & Lee, J. F. (2013). The Developmental Dimension in Instructed Second Language Learning: The L2 Acquisition of Object Pronouns in Spanish. London: Bloomsbury.
  17. Mitchell, R. F., Dominguez, L., Arche, M. J., Myles, F., & Marsden, E. (2008). SPLLOC: A new database for Spanish second language acquisition research. EuroSLA Yearbook, 8(1), 287-304. https://doi.org/10.1075/eurosla.8.15smit
  18. Na Ranong, S., & Leung, Y-K. I. (2009). Null objects in L1 Thai-L2 English-L3 Chinese: An empiricist take on a theoretical problem. In Leung, Y-K. I. (Ed.), Third Language Acquisition and Universal Grammar (pp. 162-191). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
  19. Odlin, T. (1989). Language Transfer: Cross-linguistic Influence in Language Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  20. Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G. N., & Svartvik, J. (1972). A Grammar of Contemporary English. Singapore: Longman.
  21. Rabadan, R. (2015). A corpus-based study of aspect: Still and already+ verb phrase constructions into Spanish. Nordic Journal of English Studies, 14(1), 34-61. https://doi.org/10.35360/njes.339
  22. Ringbom, H. (1986). Crosslinguistic influence and the foreign language learning process. In Kellerman, E., & Sharwood-Smith, M. (Eds.), Crosslinguistic Influence in Second Language Acquisition (pp. 150-162). Oxford: Pergamon.
  23. Ringbom, H. (2007). Cross-linguistics Similarity in Foreign Language Learning. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
  24. Rossi, E., Kroll, J. F., & Dussias, P. E. (2014). Clitic pronouns reveal the time course of processing gender and number in a second language. Neuropsychologia, 62(1), 11-25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2014.07.002
  25. Rothman, J. (2015). Linguistic and cognitive motivation for the Typological Primacy Model of third language (L3) transfer: Considering the role of timing of acquisition and proficiency in the previous languages. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 18(2), 179-190. https://doi.org/10.1017/s136672891300059x
  26. Salaberry, R. (2005). Evidence for transfer of knowledge about aspect from L2 Spanish to L3 Portuguese. In Ayoun, D., & Salaberry, M. R. (Eds.), Tense and Aspect in the Romance Languages: Theoretical and Applied Perspectives (pp. 179-210). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  27. Schwenter, S. A., & Torres Cacoullos, R. (2014). Competing constraints on the variable placement of direct object clitics in Mexico City Spanish. Revista Espanola de Linguistica Aplicada, 27(2), 514-536. https://doi.org/10.1075/resla.27.2.13sch
  28. VanPatten, B. (1984). Learners' comprehension of clitic pronouns: More evidence for a word order strategy. Hispanic Linguistics, 1(1), 57-68.
  29. VanPatten, B. (1990). The acquisition of clitic pronouns in Spanish: Two case studies. In VanPatten, B. & Lee, J. F. (Eds.), Second Language Acquisition/Foreign Language Learning (pp. 118-139). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
  30. VanPatten, B., & Houston, T. (1998). Contextual effects in processing L2 input sentences. Spanish Applied Linguistics, 2(1), 53-70.
  31. VanPatten, B. (2004). Processing Instruction: Theory, Research, and Commentary. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
  32. Williams, S., & Hammarberg, B. (1998). Language switches in L3 production: Implications for a polyglot speaking model. Applied Linguistics, 19(3), 295-333. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/19.3.295
  33. Xu, J., & Li, X. (2014). Structural and semantic non-correspondences between Chinese splittable compounds and their English translations: A Chinese-English parallel corpus-based study. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory, 10(1), 79-101.