Minimalist Inquiries into Child and Adult Language Acquisition: Case Studies across Portuguese

Published by De Gruyter Mouton 2009

Minimalist Inquiries into Child and Adult Language Acquisition

Case Studies across Portuguese

Edited by: Acrisio Pires and Jason Rothman

Volume 35 in the series Studies on Language Acquisition [SOLA]

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110215359

Overview
Contents

About this book

This volume brings together chapters written by specialists in North America, Europe and Brazil. It includes original research about the acquisition (L1, bilingualism) and acquisition/ learning (L2 or L3) of dialects of Brazilian and European Portuguese. In an effort to maximize volume cohesion, the emphasis has been on contributions that present studies exploring both empirical/experimental and theoretical aspects of the acquisition of syntax, and its interfaces with morphology, with semantics/pragmatics, and with language change.

Within the generative paradigm alone there are various volumes on the acquisition of other languages, but there are no volumes currently in print focusing on the acquisition of Portuguese. We believe that it is time for such a volume, considering among other factors that Portuguese is the second most widely spoken Romance language (second only to Spanish), and the seventh most widely spoken language in the world.

In addition, the significant changes that have taken place between Brazilian and European Portuguese especially since the 19th century make the inquiry into the acquisition of the different dialects a source for very productive insights about the connections between linguistic theory, language acquisition and language change. Finally, having a collection of high quality articles in one place pays homage to the importance for linguistic research of investigations into the acquisition of the Portuguese language.

Author / Editor information

Acrisio Pires, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA; Jason Rothman, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA.

Reviews

The first volume of its kind, it focuses on generative approaches to the acquisition problem and its interface with language change and dialectal variation. The papers address current issues in morphosyntactic theory raised by micro-variation between European and Brazilian Portuguese. The book is highly recommended for anyone interested in the development of language across generations and geography.
(Nina Hyams, Professor of Linguistics,
University of California, Los Angeles)

This volume makes a substantial contribution to cognitive science because it uses extremely valuable descriptive and experimental data to address both the logical and the developmental problem of primary and non-primary language acquisition.
(Juana M. Liceras, Professor of Spanish and Linguistics,
University of Ottawa)

Topics

Frontmatter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	I
Contents Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	VII
Foreword David Lightfoot Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Child and adult language acquisition, linguistic theory and (microparametric) variation Acrisio Pires and Jason Rothman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	5
Part 1 – First Language Acquisition
Bootstrapping language acquisition from a minimalist standpoint: On the identification of ϕ-features in Brazilian Portuguese Letícia Sicuro Corrêa Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	35
Clitic omission in the acquisition of European Portuguese: Data from comprehension João Costa and Maria Lobo Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	63
Speculations about the acquisition of wh-questions in Brazilian Portuguese Elaine Grolla Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	85
Aspect and the acquisition of null objects in Brazilian Portuguese Ruth Vasconcellos Lopes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	105
Acquisition of Brazilian Portuguese in late childhood: Implications for syntactic theory and language change Acrisio Pires and Jason Rothman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	129
Early VP ellipsis: Production and comprehension evidence Ana Lúcia Santos Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155
Part 2 – Adult and Second Language Acquisition
Informing adult acquisition debates: N-Drop at the initial state of L3 Brazilian Portuguese Jennifer Cabrelli-Amaro, Michael Iverson and Tiffany Judy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	177
Divergence at the syntax-discourse interface: Evidence from the L2 acquisition of contrastive focus in European Portuguese Maria Fruit Bell Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	197
Competing SLA hypotheses assessed: Comparing heritage and successive Spanish bilinguals of L3 Brazilian Portuguese Michael Iverson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221
Brazilian Portuguese and the recovery of lost clitics through schooling Mary A. Kato, Sonia L. Cyrino and Vilma Reche Corrêa Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	245
The acquisition of clitic pronouns in L2 European Portuguese Ana Maria Madeira and Maria Francisca Xavier Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	273
Subject expression in the non-native acquisition of Brazilian Portuguese Silvina Montrul, Rejane Dias and Ana Thomé-Williams Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	301
Afterword A. Carlos Quicoli Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	327
Backmatter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	341

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
Audience: Language and Linguistics Scholars, Graduate/Undergraduate Students interested in Language Acquisition, Syntax, the Syntax-Morphology and Syntax-Semantics Interfaces and Romance Linguistics
Pages
- Front matter: 8
- Main content: 354
Illustrations
- Other: Figs. and tabs.
Keywords: Language Teaching; Second Language Acquisition; Romance Languages

eBook

Published: June 23, 2009
ISBN: 9783110215359

Hardcover

Published: June 17, 2009
ISBN: 9783110215342