<i>The acquisition of Spanish: Morphosyntactic development in monolingual and bilingual L1 acquisition and adult L2 acquisition</i> (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: The acquisition of Spanish: Morphosyntactic development in monolingual and bilingual L1 acquisition and adult L2 acquisition Mihaela Pirvulescu Silvina A. Montrul. 2004. The acquisition of Spanish: Morphosyntactic development in monolingual and bilingual L1 acquisition and adult L2 acquisition. In the series Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 37. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Pp. xv + 411. US$63.00 (softcover). In this book, the acquisition of Spanish is viewed from three perspectives: monolingual first language (L1) acquisition, bilingual acquisition by children, and adult second language (L2) acquisition. The focus is on the structural aspects of language acquisition, namely morphology, syntax, and some aspects of lexical semantics. The goal of this book, written within the generative framework, is to support the hypothesis that Universal Grammar guides and constrains all instances of language acquisition. Spanish data is used throughout the book to support the Continuity Hypothesis in all instances of language acquisition. The book is organized into six chapters, each focusing on a specific grammatical theme: morphosyntax of the noun phrase (Chapter 2), morphosyntax of the verb phrase (Chapter 3), the pronominal domain (Chapter 4), the complementizer domain (Chapter 5), and lexical aspects of verb meaning (Chapter 6). The introduction gives an overview of the basic assumptions within the generative theory of language acquisition as well as a guide to basic research questions in the various types of acquisition (L1, bilingual, and L2). Each chapter begins with a review of the relevant Spanish constructions and the associated theoretical assumptions. Studies undertaken on each topic are then discussed in detail and the results reproduced in table form. A good number of examples are provided and where necessary the experimental procedures are explained at length. The empirical base comes from various studies and comprises naturalistic as well as experimental data. Different hypotheses are critically discussed and compared. Chapter 1, “Theoretical foundations”, introduces the basic concepts of Universal Grammar and the general approach to the acquisition of language that it implies. The main theoretical questions that arise for L1, bilingual, and L2 acquisition are presented in turn and they are contrasted with alternative positions that frame the debate: Continuity versus Non-continuity in L1 acquisition; the initial state in bilingual development within the Initial Unitary System versus the Language Differentiation Hypothesis; full, partial or no access to UG and the role of L1 in L2 acquisition. A brief overview of the general characteristics of Spanish grammar is given at the end of this chapter. Chapter 2, “Morphosyntax of the noun phrase”, discusses some aspects of the development of the DP category such as initial representation of the determiners, gender and number agreement, and noun-drop. Using studies comparing German, Spanish, and Basque, the chapter concludes that the determiner category is acquired early on both by Spanish children and by adult L2 learners. Chapter 3, “Morphosyntax of the verb phrase”, focuses on the acquisition of finiteness, tense, aspect, and mood. Comparative data is used to show that verbal inflections emerge early in Spanish children, favouring the Continuity Hypothesis in L1 and bilingual acquisition. A comparative discussion of Spanish, Basque, and English supports the observation that root infinitives are not a uniform phenomenon across languages. The author draws on evidence from [End Page 182] all types of acquisition in order to establish that functional categories expressing tense, aspect, and agreement are present in early grammars and that L2 learners are capable of acquiring them. Chapter 4, “Subject and object pronouns”, presents the main issues surrounding the acquisition of pronouns: null subjects and objects, clitic doubling, and binding. Data show that subject and object pronouns appear early on and that children become quickly aware of the pragmatic distribution of null and overt subjects. The chapter contains a detailed discussion of the acquisition of Principle B of the binding theory as well as a comparison among different Spanish dialects concerning the development of pronouns and their interpretation. In the section on bilingual and L2 development, a variety of languages are investigated, including French, English, Basque, Korean, Cantonese, Danish, and Swedish. Chapter 5, “Topics, questions, embedding, and movement”, discusses the development of the CP structure with evidence from imperatives, subject-verb inversion in questions and wh-movement. The data comes...