Transfer effects in the interpretation of definite articles by Spanish heritage speakers
Transfer effects in the interpretation of definite articles by Spanish heritage speakers
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DOI：
10.1017/s1366728910000040
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发表时间：
2010-10-01
影响因子：
3.6
通讯作者：
Ionin, Tania
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Montrul, Silvina;Ionin, Tania
本研究通过关注居住在以英语为主要语言的美国的西班牙语传承者（即少数语言双语者）对西班牙语和英语定冠词的解释，调查了从强势语言迁移的作用。带定冠词的西班牙语复数NPs可以表示一般指称（Los elefantes tienen colmillos de marfil）或特定指称（Los elefantes de este zoologico son marrones）。英语复数带定冠词只能表示具体指称（The elephants in this zoo are brown），而一般指称则用裸复数NPs表示（elephants have ivory tusks）。此外，西班牙语定冠词在不可剥夺的占有结构中更常用（Pedro levanto la mano“Peter举手”），而在英语中，定冠词的使用通常意味着身体部位属于别人（不可剥夺的占有）。23名西班牙裔成年人分别用西班牙语和英语完成可接受性判断、真值判断和图片句子匹配任务。结果表明，西班牙语传承者表现出从英语到西班牙语的转移，在一般语境中，而不是在不可剥夺的占有语境中，用定冠词解释。讨论了这一发现对遗产语言研究领域和冠词语义理论的影响。
This study investigates the role of transfer from the stronger language by focusing on the interpretation of definite articles in Spanish and English by Spanish heritage speakers (i.e., minority language-speaking bilinguals) residing in the U. S., where English is the majority language. Spanish plural NPs with definite articles can express generic reference (Los elefantes tienen colmillos de marfil), or specific reference (Los elefantes de este zoologico son marrones). English plurals with definite articles can only have specific reference (The elephants in this zoo are brown), while generic reference is expressed with bare plural NPs (Elephants have ivory tusks). Furthermore, the Spanish definite article is preferred in inalienable possession constructions (Pedro levanto la mano "Peter raised the hand"), whereas in English the use of a definite article typically means that the body part belongs to somebody else (alienable possession). Twenty-three adult Spanish heritage speakers completed three tasks in Spanish (acceptability judgment, truth-value judgment, and picture-sentence matching tasks) and the same three tasks in English. Results show that the Spanish heritage speakers exhibited transfer from English into Spanish with the interpretation of definite articles in generic but not in inalienable possession contexts. Implications of this finding for the field of heritage language research and for theories of article semantics are discussed.