Variation in the expression of possession by Latino children

Abstract

As part of a national effort to improve reading levels, spontaneous speech samples were collected from 630 Latino, African American, and white children in grades 2 through 4 in Georgia, California, and Pennsylvania. In this study, data was used from 126 Latinos, and a comparison group of 28 African American and 28 white children to study their use of 3rd person possessive pronouns, periphrastic of possessives, and attributive -s possessives. It was found that Latino children confused his for her and her for his; used more periphrastic of constructions; and omitted the attributive -s marker in noun -s noun constructions. Multivariate analyses revealed that beyond Spanish influence, speaker sex, language origin, and grade also affected the expression of possession. Most striking are the differences accordingtospeakersex,andbetweenMexicanandPuertoRicooriginchildren,whichare considered in light of the closer relationship between Puerto Ricans and African Americans in Philadelphia. ThisreportofpossessivestructuresinLatino 1 childrenreliesonthesociolinguistic study of spontaneous speech and looks at the effects of multiple social and linguistic factors on the production of several linguistic variables. Three types of English language possessives were considered: third person possessive pronouns; periphrastic of possessives; and attributive -s possessives. It was found that the Latino children confused his for her and her for his, as in (1); used periphrastic of constructions more than native English speakers, as in (2); and omitted the attributive -s marker, as in (3).