Abstract
This article reports on a study, with online measures, which investigated the processing of subject–verb (SV) agreement sentences by one group of heritage Spanish speakers (HSs), two groups of L2 learners of Spanish (L1 English) and one group of traditional Spanish native speakers. Experimental SV sentences manipulated person and number features with subjects and verbs in the present tense. Between-group statistical analyses indicated differential processing between the heritage and the L2 groups. The heritage group’s performance was more native-like than the L2 participants. Within-subject tests showed some similar patterns between heritage and L2 high-level processing, including delayed sensitivity to ungrammaticality after the verb region. We argue that the HSs were able to process basic grammar structures, just as traditional native speakers do. This suggests early bilingualism conferred an advantage to HSS when compared to L2 learners, in the control of basic agreement in Spanish.
Highlights
EN This article reports on a study, with online measures, which investigated the processing of subject–verb (SV) agreement sentences by one group of heritage Spanish speakers (HSs), two groups of L2 learners of Spanish (L1 English) and one group of traditional Spanish native speakers
ES El artículo presenta a los lectores un estudio con resultados medidos en línea y dirigido a investigar el procesamiento de oraciones de tipo sujeto-verbo (SV) por parte de un grupo de hablantes de español como lengua de herencia (LH), dos grupos de aprendientes de español como L2 y un grupo tradicional de hablantes nativos de español
At the Verb region, it took longer for the low learners to read SV sentences when compared to the HSs, p =
Summary
EN This article reports on a study, with online measures, which investigated the processing of subject–verb (SV) agreement sentences by one group of heritage Spanish speakers (HSs), two groups of L2 learners of Spanish (L1 English) and one group of traditional Spanish native speakers. Contrasting the grammatical knowledge of heritage speakers (HSs) of any language with the one held by native speakers and L2 learners has raised interest among linguists in recent years (Cuza & Frank, 2015; Keating, VanPatten, & Jegerski, 2011; Montrul, 2010, 2013; Montrul & Bowles, 2009; Montrul & Perpiñán, 2011; Pascual y Cabo & Gómez Soler, 2015; Potowski, Jegerski, & Morgan-Short, 2009; Rothman, 2007, among others). They still communicate quite at ease in the household language with friends and extended relatives at all times
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