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The l2 acquisition of morphosyntactic and semantic properties of the aspectual tenses preterite and imperfect

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The Acquisition of Spanish Morphosyntax

Part of the book series: Studies in Theoretical Psycholinguistics ((SITP,volume 31))

Abstract

This study explores the interface between morphosyntax and semantics by investigating how second language (L2) learners acquire form-meaning connections in the aspectual and temporal domain, an area of significant morphological variation across languages (Giorgi & Pianesi, 1997). The particular focus is on the acquisition of the aspectual interpretation of the Preterite and Imperfect tenses in Spanish by intermediate and advanced level learners whose native language is English. Although acquisition of tense/aspect morphology by L2 learners of Romance languages has been extensively studied in Spanish (Andersen, 1986; Hasbún, 1995; LiskinGasparro, 1997; Ramsay, 1990; Salaberry, 1999), French (Coppieters, 1987; Kaplan, 1987; Salaberry, 1998), Italian (Wiberg, 1996), and Portuguese (Schmidt & Frota, 1986), this study breaks new ground by addressing the link between morphosyntax and semantics within current grammatical theory. To account for the differences between English and Spanish in their temporal and aspectual systems, we adopt Giorgi & Pianesis (1997) analysis of the parametric differences between Germanic and Romance, an analysis grounded in the theory of features and functional categories of Chomskys (1995) Minimalist Program.

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Authors
  1. Silvina Montrul
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  2. Roumyana Slabakova
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Toronto, Canada

    Ana Teresa Pérez-Leroux

  2. University of Ottawa, Canada

    Juana Muñoz Liceras

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Montrul, S., Slabakova, R. (2002). The l2 acquisition of morphosyntactic and semantic properties of the aspectual tenses preterite and imperfect. In: Pérez-Leroux, A.T., Liceras, J.M. (eds) The Acquisition of Spanish Morphosyntax. Studies in Theoretical Psycholinguistics, vol 31. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0291-2_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0291-2_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-0975-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-010-0291-2

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