TY - JOUR
T1 - ON COMPLEXITY and DIVERGENCE in HERITAGE LANGUAGE GRAMMARS
AU - Perez-Cortes, Silvia
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - For more than a decade, research on heritage speakers' (HSs') mood selection has documented a high degree of variability in their interpretation and use of mood morphology in variable contexts. Most of the previous literature, however, has focused on late-acquired alternations, and often limited analyses to one form (i.e., subjunctive), making it difficult to draw conclusions about HSs' knowledge of mood distinctions. This study intends to fill this gap by examining Spanish HSs' (n = 76) and Spanish-dominant controls' (n = 25) interpretation and use of an early acquired mood alternation, where the presence of indicative or subjunctive conveys the report of an assertion or a command. Results from two experimental tasks reveal that, even though HSs' performance tends to differ from that of controls' - especially at lower levels of proficiency - the nature and extent of their divergences suggests the need to embrace a more nuanced analysis of HSs' linguistic outcomes when examining modal contrasts.
AB - For more than a decade, research on heritage speakers' (HSs') mood selection has documented a high degree of variability in their interpretation and use of mood morphology in variable contexts. Most of the previous literature, however, has focused on late-acquired alternations, and often limited analyses to one form (i.e., subjunctive), making it difficult to draw conclusions about HSs' knowledge of mood distinctions. This study intends to fill this gap by examining Spanish HSs' (n = 76) and Spanish-dominant controls' (n = 25) interpretation and use of an early acquired mood alternation, where the presence of indicative or subjunctive conveys the report of an assertion or a command. Results from two experimental tasks reveal that, even though HSs' performance tends to differ from that of controls' - especially at lower levels of proficiency - the nature and extent of their divergences suggests the need to embrace a more nuanced analysis of HSs' linguistic outcomes when examining modal contrasts.
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U2 - 10.1017/S0272263121000589
DO - 10.1017/S0272263121000589
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85115617547
JO - Studies in Second Language Acquisition
JF - Studies in Second Language Acquisition
SN - 0272-2631
ER -