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On the (UN)-ambiguity of adjectival modification in Spanish determiner phrases: Informing debates on the mental representations of l2 syntax

Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Review article › peer-review

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On the (UN)-ambiguity of adjectival modification in Spanish determiner phrases: Informing debates on the mental representations of l2 syntax. / Rothman, Jason; Judy, Tiffany; Guijarro-Fuentes, Pedro et al.
In: Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Vol. 32, No. 1, 31.03.2010, p. 47-77.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Review article › peer-review

Harvard

Rothman, J, Judy, T, Guijarro-Fuentes, P & Pires, A 2010, 'On the (UN)-ambiguity of adjectival modification in Spanish determiner phrases: Informing debates on the mental representations of l2 syntax', Studies in Second Language Acquisition, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 47-77. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263109990258

APA

Rothman, J., Judy, T., Guijarro-Fuentes, P., & Pires, A. (2010). On the (UN)-ambiguity of adjectival modification in Spanish determiner phrases: Informing debates on the mental representations of l2 syntax. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 32(1), 47-77. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263109990258

Vancouver

Rothman J, Judy T, Guijarro-Fuentes P, Pires A. On the (UN)-ambiguity of adjectival modification in Spanish determiner phrases: Informing debates on the mental representations of l2 syntax. Studies in Second Language Acquisition. 2010 Mar 31;32(1):47-77. Epub 2010 Feb 5. doi: 10.1017/S0272263109990258

Author

Rothman, Jason ; Judy, Tiffany ; Guijarro-Fuentes, Pedro et al. / On the (UN)-ambiguity of adjectival modification in Spanish determiner phrases : Informing debates on the mental representations of l2 syntax. In: Studies in Second Language Acquisition. 2010 ; Vol. 32, No. 1. pp. 47-77.

Bibtex

@article{a2924b4c65924d08b2baa5551ca6d030,
title = "On the (UN)-ambiguity of adjectival modification in Spanish determiner phrases: Informing debates on the mental representations of l2 syntax",
abstract = "This study contributes to a central debate within contemporary generative second language (L2) theorizing: the extent to which adult learners are (un)able to acquire new functional features that result in a L2 grammar that is mentally structured like the native target (see White, 2003). The adult acquisition of L2 nominal phi-features is explored, with focus on the syntactic and semantic reflexes in the related domain of adjective placement in two experimental groups: English-speaking intermediate (n = 21) and advanced (n = 24) learners of Spanish, as compared to a native-speaker control group (n = 15). Results show that, on some of the tasks, the intermediate L2 learners appear to have acquired the syntactic properties of the Spanish determiner phrase but, on other tasks, to show some delay with the semantic reflexes of prenominal and postnominal adjectives. Crucially, however, our data demonstrate full convergence by all advanced learners and thus provide evidence in contra the predictions of representational deficit accounts (e.g., Hawkins & Chan, 1997; Hawkins & Franceschina, 2004; Hawkins & Hattori, 2006).",
author = "Jason Rothman and Tiffany Judy and Pedro Guijarro-Fuentes and Acrisio Pires",
year = "2010",
month = mar,
day = "31",
doi = "10.1017/S0272263109990258",
language = "English",
volume = "32",
pages = "47--77",
journal = "Studies in Second Language Acquisition",
issn = "0272-2631",
publisher = "Cambridge University Press",
number = "1",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - On the (UN)-ambiguity of adjectival modification in Spanish determiner phrases

T2 - Informing debates on the mental representations of l2 syntax

AU - Rothman, Jason

AU - Judy, Tiffany

AU - Guijarro-Fuentes, Pedro

AU - Pires, Acrisio

PY - 2010/3/31

Y1 - 2010/3/31

N2 - This study contributes to a central debate within contemporary generative second language (L2) theorizing: the extent to which adult learners are (un)able to acquire new functional features that result in a L2 grammar that is mentally structured like the native target (see White, 2003). The adult acquisition of L2 nominal phi-features is explored, with focus on the syntactic and semantic reflexes in the related domain of adjective placement in two experimental groups: English-speaking intermediate (n = 21) and advanced (n = 24) learners of Spanish, as compared to a native-speaker control group (n = 15). Results show that, on some of the tasks, the intermediate L2 learners appear to have acquired the syntactic properties of the Spanish determiner phrase but, on other tasks, to show some delay with the semantic reflexes of prenominal and postnominal adjectives. Crucially, however, our data demonstrate full convergence by all advanced learners and thus provide evidence in contra the predictions of representational deficit accounts (e.g., Hawkins & Chan, 1997; Hawkins & Franceschina, 2004; Hawkins & Hattori, 2006).

AB - This study contributes to a central debate within contemporary generative second language (L2) theorizing: the extent to which adult learners are (un)able to acquire new functional features that result in a L2 grammar that is mentally structured like the native target (see White, 2003). The adult acquisition of L2 nominal phi-features is explored, with focus on the syntactic and semantic reflexes in the related domain of adjective placement in two experimental groups: English-speaking intermediate (n = 21) and advanced (n = 24) learners of Spanish, as compared to a native-speaker control group (n = 15). Results show that, on some of the tasks, the intermediate L2 learners appear to have acquired the syntactic properties of the Spanish determiner phrase but, on other tasks, to show some delay with the semantic reflexes of prenominal and postnominal adjectives. Crucially, however, our data demonstrate full convergence by all advanced learners and thus provide evidence in contra the predictions of representational deficit accounts (e.g., Hawkins & Chan, 1997; Hawkins & Franceschina, 2004; Hawkins & Hattori, 2006).

U2 - 10.1017/S0272263109990258

DO - 10.1017/S0272263109990258

M3 - Review article

AN - SCOPUS:77951223676

VL - 32

SP - 47

EP - 77

JO - Studies in Second Language Acquisition

JF - Studies in Second Language Acquisition

SN - 0272-2631

IS - 1

ER -