ABSTRACT

Literature on early language acquisition has observed that age of onset of acquisition (AoA) is relevant for certain grammatical phenomena. Simultaneous bilinguals receive regular and extensive exposure to two languages from birth (Müller, 2009), whereas sequential child learners get in extensive contact to L_B once the L_A has developed to a certain degree (Meisel, J. M. [2013]. Sensitive phases in successive language acquisition: The Critical Period Hypothesis revisited. In C. Boeckx & K. Grohmann (Eds.), Handbook of biolinguistics (pp. 69–85). Cambridge University Press). Exposure to L_B can take place early in childhood (eL2 learners, age 3;0) or starting with elementary school (cL2 learners, age 6;0). In this study, 34 participants were recruited from different Catalan-speaking regions and displayed different AoA-profiles (12 simultaneous, 13 eL2 and 9 cL2 learners) and different degrees of language dominance (17 balanced, 10 Spanish and 7 Catalan dominant). We conducted a Preference Task to examine Catalan copula selection in locative contexts with (non-)eventive subjects, since it may pattern differently in Catalan/Spanish: Both languages select ésser/ser for eventive subjects, non-eventive subjects take estar in Spanish but show variation in Catalan. Our study examines whether the factors AoA, language dominance or the speaker’s linguistic variety determine copula selection. In a nutshell, all speakers preferred ésser with eventive subjects. For non-eventive subjects, the results show that language dominance and speaker’s linguistic variety predict copula preference.

摘要

有关早期语言习得的文献观察到习得开始年龄 (AoA) 与某些语法现象相关。_{同时双语者从出生起就定期广泛接触两种语言（Müller，2009），而顺序儿童学习者一旦 L A}发展到一定程度，就会广泛接触 L B _（ Meisel，JM [2013]。敏感阶段）连续语言习得：重新审视关键期假说。In C. Boeckx & K. Grohmann (Eds.), Handbook of biolinguistics (pp. 69–85). Cambridge University Press)。暴露于_LB可以在儿童早期（eL2 学习者，年龄 3;0）或从小学开始（cL2 学习者，年龄 6;0）开始。在这项研究中，从不同的加泰罗尼亚语地区招募了 34 名参与者，他们表现出不同的 AoA 特征（12 名同时学习者、13 名 eL2 学习者和 9 名 cL2 学习者）和不同程度的语言优势（17 名平衡学习者、10 名西班牙语学习者和 7 名加泰罗尼亚语学习者）。我们进行了一项偏好任务来检查加泰罗尼亚语系动词在（非）事件主语的方位语境中的选择，因为它在加泰罗尼亚语/西班牙语中的模式可能不同：两种语言都选择 ésser / ser 作为事件主语，非事件主语则选择estar西班牙语，但显示加泰罗尼亚语的变化。我们的研究探讨了 AoA、语言优势或说话者的语言多样性等因素是否决定了系词的选择。简而言之，所有演讲者都喜欢主题活跃的esser。对于非事件性主题，结果表明语言优势和说话者的语言多样性可以预测系词偏好。