Research on linguistic variation suggests that usage patterns are deeply embedded in native and non-native speakers' knowledge of grammar. This study explores the transfer of these variable sociolinguistic patterns at the initial stages of third language acquisition. We elicited narratives in Portuguese from two mirror-image groups of sequential…

This article reports the findings of sociolinguistic research investigating the use of second-person singular pronouns in Costa Rica. The study was carried out onsite and involved 132 interviewees from all seven provinces of the country. These subjects reacted to scenarios in which they had to choose their preferred pronoun of use…

We report the results of two studies that investigate the factors contributing to non-native-like ability in child and adult heritage speakers by focusing on oral production of Differential Object Marking (DOM), the overt morphological marking of animate direct objects in Spanish. In study 1, 39 school-age bilingual children (ages 6-17) from the…

Stuttering patterns may differ when comparing two languages. In bilinguals, specific patterns of stuttering in each one of the languages may potentially be found. This study reports on the case of a 27-year-old Spanish/English simultaneous bilingual whose dominant language is English. Speech and language testing was performed in both languages…

In Spanish, each uttered phrase, depending on its use, has one of a variety of intonation patterns. For example, a phrase such as "Maria viene manana" "Mary is coming tomorrow" can be used as a declarative or as an absolute interrogative (a yes/no question) depending on the intonation pattern that a speaker produces. …

The literature generally assumes that object clitic omission is equally allowed in all child languages. In this paper we challenge this claim by means of an elicitation experiment carried out with children acquiring two closely related languages, Catalan and Spanish. Our results show that while omission is high in young Catalan-speaking children,…

It is cross-linguistically common for languages to undergo a diachronic increase in the range of adverbial notions that can be expressed by means of infinitival constructions, and the Romance languages are a good example of this process. Examining the development of adverbial "prepositional infinitive" constructions in Spanish, Portuguese and…

Shows certain irregularities and uncertainties in the formation of the plural of compounds composed of two nouns or in the case of two nouns in apposition. (Text is in Spanish.) (TL)

Report of a study conducted to test the verbal behavior of native speakers of Spanish who were asked to provide a verb form not commonly used, the first person singular present tense of the verb "roer." (KM)

An innovative approach to facilitate student mastery of Spanish linguistic structures requiring manipulation of the direct object is described in this article. The method, derived originally from William Bull's "Spanish for Teachers," also enables students to apply the transformational method to sentences containing nominalized adjectives,…

Partial report of a more extensive investigation. (SK)

Discusses rules governing the use in Spanish of demonstrative adjectives in regard to the physical location of speaker and listener. (DS)

Analysis of the syntactic properties of Spanish prepositions, postpositions, and substantives supports the argument that a three-way categorical distinction exists among the three elements. (CB)

Discusses the peculiarity of translating the English is being" to Spanish or combining the infinitive of the verb to be" (estar) with the participle of to be" (ser). (DS)

This article discusses the construction substantive + the preposition DE+ substantive in Spanish. (Text is in Spanish.) (CLK)