Spanish Bilinguals Research Articles

¿Soy de Ribera o Rivera?: Sociolinguistic /b/-/v/ Variation in Rivera Spanish

This study investigates the impact of language contact on three generations of bilingual Spanish and Uruguayan Portuguese speakers in Rivera City, Uruguay, located on the Uruguayan–Brazilian border. Focusing on the confirmed presence of the Portuguese-like/b/and/v/phonemic distinction, and the lower frequency of the Montevideo Spanish-like approximantized stops in Riverense Spanish (RS), the research examines the production of <v> and <b> in 29 female Rivera Spanish bilinguals belonging to different age groups. More specifically, the aim was to see if the previously observed differential use of language-specific phonological variants could be accounted for by using precise measurements of relative intensity, duration, and voicing coupled with a distributional analysis of realizations derived from auditory coding. At the same time, their production is compared to that of 30 monolingual Montevideo Spanish (MS) speakers, who served as the control group, offering a first description of the production of <v> and <b> within this distinct Rioplatense Spanish variety. Riverense’s higher overall relative intensity, duration, and voicing values support auditory coding results, providing evidence of the expected phonological differences between both Uruguayan Spanish varieties. In particular, an exclusive presence of fricative/v/and less approximantization of/b/in RS speech exposed the influence of Portuguese in Rivera bilinguals and their divergence from MS. In addition, as predicted, the findings reveal a higher presence of Portuguese-like productions of [v] and [b] in older bilinguals when compared to younger generations. This illustrates a continuum from Portuguese-like forms to Spanish-like forms, which is confirmed by both acoustic and distributional analyses. Finally, evidence of the existence of innovative forms resulting from mixing Portuguese and Spanish phonological systems in RS are presented. This study’s findings contribute to sociolinguistics and bilingualism by exposing cross-linguistic influence in a border setting with rigorous analytical methods that offer reliable results and go beyond a basic analysis based on auditory identification.

Translation, cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the universal Welch Emotional Connection Screen using primary and bilingual Spanish-speaking coders of videotaped mother-child interactions

IntroductionUsing clear explicit translatable language, we translated the Welch Emotional Connection Screen into a new universal language instrument, the English uWECS. In this study, we had two aims: Aim 1 was to establish concurrent validity of the uWECS by comparing scores coded by primary Spanish-speaking coders using the Spanish translation of the uWECS to scores coded by bilingual, secondary Spanish-speaking coders using the oWECS. Aim 2 was to establish the criterion-related validity in terms of oWECS and uWECS performance in tracking change in autonomic emotional connection (AEC) during the course of an intervention among preschool aged children.MethodsWe created a library of 52 five-minute Spanish-speaking mother-child videos that were collected during a randomized controlled trial of Mother-Child Emotional Preparation intervention (MCEP). The videos were collected at two time points, at enrollment and at a 6-month follow-up. The subsample of Primary Spanish-Speaking dyads from the MCEP study were coded by two independent teams of coders. We trained primary English-speaking (bilingual Spanish) coders on the oWECS, using the original training program. A different team of primary Spanish-speaking coders coded the same cases using the novel uWECS guide and trained briefly for reliability with the Spanish uWECS translation materials.ResultsWe found that the Spanish oWECS and Spanish uWECS ratings from the baseline and 6-month follow-up observations were robustly correlated, with intraclass correlations ranging from .81 to .84 and all p-values<.001, thus demonstrating sound concurrent validity for the uWECS. The oWECS and uWECS scores also achieved parallel results when evaluating the efficacy of the MCEP for primary Spanish-speaking dyads. Both the AEC scores of the oWECS [F(1, 27) = 4.31, p < .05] and the scores of the uWECS [F(1,27) = 4.06, p < .05] similarly demonstrated significant change post intervention, thus demonstrating sound criterion-related validity of the uWECS.DiscussionThese findings demonstrate that the uWECS can be used to measure parent/child AEC in linguistically diverse populations and cultures.

Variable Acceptability of Differential Object Marking in Bilingual Galician–Spanish Speakers: An Exploratory Study

This paper presents an initial study of the acceptability of differential object marking (DOM) by Galician–Spanish bilinguals in Galicia. The research explores judgments provided by these bilinguals (n = 69) on DOM in both Galician and Spanish and it also explores data from a monolingual Spanish control group (n = 12). The surveys target contexts covering key syntactic and semantic–pragmatic contexts for DOM in Galician and Spanish, based on the existing literature. The Galician data reveal a tendency towards reduced acceptability of DOM compared to Spanish, but without a generalized rejection of DOM in any of the contexts. The Spanish data show variability in both groups. The study contributes insights from an under-studied language pair and aims to open avenues for further work. More generally, it enhances our understanding of DOM in bilingual grammars, particularly in microcontact situations.

The role of foreign language in the experience and emotional expression of guilt: evidence from moral scenarios and autobiographical memories of bilinguals

ABSTRACT This study investigated the influence of language – first language (L1) versus second language (L2) – on the experience and the expression of the emotion of guilt. Fifty-two Greek – Spanish bilinguals read two moral scenarios that induced guilt in their L2 (Spanish) and rated the intensity with which they felt a series of emotions (moral scenario task). Then they were asked to recall and write about a real-life event that made them feel guilty in their L2 (autobiographical memory task). A month later they performed the same tasks in their L1. Content analysis and emotional vocabulary analysis were conducted to examine cross-linguistic differences in the expression of guilt. Overall, these bilinguals experienced higher levels of guilt and regret when they read the moral scenarios in their L1 Greek. They also used a greater number of emotion words in their autobiographical memories in L1. However, they appeared to be more willing to talk about sensitive topics (e.g. infidelity, homosexuality, and death) in their L2. These findings have implications for both psychotherapy and L2 instruction.

Differential Object Marking in Structurally Complex Contexts in Spanish: Evidence from Bilingual and Monolingual Processing

This study examines whether Differential Object Marking (DOM) realization and word order in relative clauses (RCs) in Spanish affect processing and interpretation among monolinguals and highly proficient Catalan–Spanish bilinguals. RCs are parallel in Catalan and Spanish, but DOM is much more restricted in Catalan than in Spanish, and, interestingly, the distinction between subject and object RCs relies mainly on the presence/absence of DOM. To examine DOM optionality, we concentrate on the top portion of the animacy scale and test the human/non-human contrast. Exploring these two populations allows us to test whether they resort to different strategies for the following three reasons: (1) bilingualism places an increased burden on memory processes); (2) the partial overlap between both DOM systems might lead to the influence from Catalan into Spanish); and (3) optionality has been proposed to characterize bilingual grammars). Findings from a word-by-word non-cumulative self-paced reading task showed that DOM modulates RC processing. With [+human] obligatorily marked objects, both monolinguals and bilinguals read subject RCs faster than object RCs, suggesting a strategy favoring subject RCs. However, monolinguals solved the interpretation early while processing but bilinguals, despite the more restricted DOM character of Catalan, are sensitive to DOM albeit displaying delayed spill-over effects. With [−human] optionally marked objects, bilinguals performed faster than monolinguals. We suggest that the uneven experience with DOM in Catalan, particularly with the non-standard variety that frequently displays DOM and that our bilinguals also speak in everyday conversations, facilitates bilinguals’ adaptation to the optional marking of non-human objects in Spanish, much in the same manner that they accommodate the presence or absence of DOM with both human and non-human objects in other native language.

When a New Pronoun Crosses the Border: The Spread of A Gente on the Brazilian-Uruguayan Frontier

This study shows that the incorporation of the first-person plural pronoun a gente has not only reached the southernmost tip of the Brazilian territory, but has crossed the border and entered Uruguayan Portuguese, or varieties of Portuguese spoken in northern Uruguay by Portuguese–Spanish bilinguals. This finding is based on the quantification of the a gente/nós variable in sociolinguistic interviews carried out in two border communities: Aceguá, Brazil, and Aceguá, Uruguay. The analysis of interviews recorded on each side of the border yielded a total of 1000 tokens that were submitted to a multivariate analysis. Following the premises of comparative sociolinguistics, we compared the distribution of the variable on both sides of the border and found that although Uruguayans used a gente less often than Brazilians, this innovation, preferred by young speakers, is incorporated in both dialects, following similar linguistic paths. These results show that Uruguayan Portuguese has incorporated the pronominal a gente in its grammar in a clear sign of convergence towards Brazilian Portuguese and divergence from Spanish, despite the coexistence with Spanish that categorically uses nosotros as the first-person plural pronoun and reserves the cognate la gente for its purely lexical meaning ‘the people’.

Utterance-Final Voice Quality in American English and Mexican Spanish Bilinguals

We investigate utterance-final voice quality in bilinguals of English and Spanish, two languages which differ in the type of non-modal voice usually encountered at ends of utterances: American English often has phrase-final creak, whereas in Mexican Spanish, phrase-final voiced sounds are breathy or even devoiced. Twenty-one bilinguals from the San Diego-Tijuana border region were recorded (with electroglottography and audio) reading passages in English and Spanish. Ends of utterances were coded for their visual voice quality as “modal” (having no aspiration noise or voicing irregularity), “breathy” (having aspiration noise), “creaky” (having voicing irregularity), or “breathy-creaky” (having both aspiration noise and voicing irregularity). In utterance-final position, speakers showed more frequent use of both modal and creaky voice when speaking in English, and more frequent use of breathy and breathy-creaky voice when speaking in Spanish. We find no role of language dominance on the rates of these four voice qualities. The electroglottographic and acoustic analyses show that all voice qualities, even utterance-final creak, are produced with increased glottal spreading; the combination of distinct noise measures and amplitude of voicing can distinguish breathy, creaky, and breathy-creaky voice qualities from one another, and from modal voice.

Constraints on Acceleration in Bilingual Development: Evidence from Word Segmentation by Spanish Learning Infants.

We have previously shown that bilingual Spanish and English-learning infants can segment English iambs, two-syllable words with final stress (e.g., guiTAR), earlier than their monolingual peers. This is consistent with accelerated development in bilinguals and was attributed to bilingual infants' increased exposure to iambs through Spanish; about 10% of English content words start with an unstressed syllable, compared to 40% in Spanish. Here, we evaluated whether increased exposure to a stress pattern alone is sufficient to account for acceleration in bilingual infants. In English, 90% of content words start with a stressed syllable (e.g., KINGdom), compared to 60% in Spanish. However, we found no evidence for accelerated segmentation of Spanish trochees by Spanish-English bilingual infants compared to their monolingual Spanish-learning peers. Based on this finding, we argue that merely increased exposure to a linguistic feature in one language does not result in accelerated development in the other. Instead, only the acquisition of infrequent patterns in one language may be accelerated due to the additive effects of the other language.

Relationships, parental involvement, and community support: Differences in school environment for boys and girls in rural Guatemala

Literacy rates in Guatemala range from 40% to 90% but widespread poverty and malnutrition hinder school attendance and educational attainment. The Western Highlands region of Guatemala has a large indigenous population and a bilingual Spanish and K’iche’ curriculum. This study explores how child, family, and community factors influence positive school environment, using a sample of 1590 sixth grade students. For male students, increased parental involvement had a positive and direct influence on healthy school environment. For female students, increased parental involvement had a positive and direct influence on healthy school environment. Teacher–student relationships may be a critical point of intervention.

Making Lexicography Sustainable: Using ChatGPT and Reusing Data for Lexicographic Purposes

In 2014, the International Centre for Lexicography, a research group at Valladolid signed a contract with Ordbogen A/S (a Danish language technology company) and the University of Valladolid for developing a lexicographic project, the so-called Diccionarios Valladolid-UVa (Fuertes-Olivera 2019, 2022a, 2022b; Fuertes-Olivera et al. 2018; Tarp and Fuertes-Olivera 2016). Each partner gave around €180,000 (the International Centre for Lexicography's contribution came from several research projects funded by the Spanish Research Agency), to be employed in the design and construction of Spanish dictionaries (in particular, a general dictionary of Spanish, a Spanish dictionary of accounting, a bilingual Spanish–English/English–Spanish dictionary and a bilingual Spanish–English/English–Spanish accounting dictionary). The above project has pro­duced several results, with the recent publication of the Diccionario Digital del Español (DIDES) its most relevant result (https://diesgital.com). Within the framework of these projects, this paper offers a general introduction of the project (Section 1), refers to the concept of sustainable lexicography (Section 2), indicates that sustainability lexicography implies a better understanding of lexico­graphic data (Section 3), and increasing lexicographic productivity, e.g., by crafting definitions for AI translations (Section 4) and using generative AI chatbots such as ChatGPT in the day-to-day lexi­cographic work. Keywords: ChatGPT, DeepL Translate, DICCIONARIOS VALLADOLID-UVA, lexi­co­graphic productivity, sustainable lexicography, public funding, gen­era­tive AI

L1 grammatical attrition in late Spanish-English bilinguals in the UK: aspectual interpretations of present tense in Spanish

ABSTRACT This article sheds light on the linguistic and extralinguistic conditions that determine the likelihood of L1 grammatical attrition in late sequential bilinguals. We explore whether aspectual interpretations associated with the present tense may be a vulnerable area for the native grammar of 30 late Spanish-English bilinguals who have settled in the UK for over 15 years. Attrition of this property in L1 Spanish grammars has been reported by Cuza (2010. On the L1 attrition of the Spanish present tense. Hispania 93, no. 2: 256–272. doi:10.1353/hpn.2010.a382874) for Spanish-English bilinguals in the USA and Canada. Our finding of no attrition for UK-based Spanish bilinguals suggests that in Cuza’s study, attrition may be mediated by dialectal variation in the L1 in the North American context, where Spanish is a widespread and visible community language. Further, we ascribe the absence of attrition to a specific characteristic of the grammatical distinction between the L1 and L2: where the L2 grammar provides options representing only a subset of the options available to the L1 for the corresponding grammatical property, attrition may be disfavoured.

What corpus data reveal about the Position of Antecedent Strategy: anaphora resolution in Spanish monolinguals and L1 English-L2 Spanish bilinguals.

This study investigates the acquisition of anaphora resolution (AR) in Spanish as a second language (L2). According to the Position of Antecedent Strategy (PAS), in native Spanish null pronominal subjects are biased toward subject antecedents, whereas overt pronominal subjects show a "flexible" bias (typically toward non-subject but also toward subject antecedents). The PAS has been extensively investigated in experimental studies, though little is known about real production. We show how naturalistic production (corpus methods) can uncover crucial factors in the PAS that have not been explored in the experimental literature. We analyzed written samples from the CEDEL2 corpus: L1 English-L2 Spanish adult late-bilingual learners (intermediate, lower-advanced and upper-advanced proficiency levels) and a control group of adult Spanish monolinguals (N = 75 texts). Anaphors were manually annotated via a fine-grained, linguistically-motivated tagset in UAM Corpus Tool. Against traditional assumptions, our results reveal that (i) the PAS is not a privileged mechanism for resolving anaphora; (ii) it is more complex than assumed (in terms of the division of labor of anaphoric forms, their antecedents and the syntactic configuration in which they appear); (iii) the much-debated "flexible" bias of overt pronouns is apparent since they are hardly produced and are replaced by repeated NPs, which show a clear non-subject antecedent bias; (iv) at the syntax-discourse interface, the PAS is constrained by information structure in more complex ways than assumed: null pronouns mark topic continuity, whereas overtly realized referential expressions (overt REs: overt pronouns and NPs) mark topic shift. Learners show more difficulties with topic continuity (where they redundantly use overt pronouns) than with topic shift (where they normally disambiguate by using overtly realized REs), thus being more redundant than ambiguous, in line with the Pragmatic Principles Violation Hypothesis (PPVH) (Lozano, 2016). We finally argue that the insights from corpora should be implemented into experiments. The triangulation of corpus and experimental methods in bilingualism ultimately provides a clearer understanding of the phenomenon under investigation.

Concepts Are Restructured During Language Contact: The Birth of Blue and Other Color Concepts in Tsimane’-Spanish Bilinguals

Words and the concepts they represent vary across languages. Here we ask if mother-tongue concepts are altered by learning a second language. What happens when speakers of Tsimane’, a language with few consensus color terms, learn Bolivian Spanish, a language with more terms? Three possibilities arise: Concepts in Tsimane’ may remain unaffected, or they may be remapped, either by Tsimane’ terms taking on new meanings or by borrowing Bolivian-Spanish terms. We found that adult bilingual speakers (n = 30) remapped Tsimane’ concepts without importing Bolivian-Spanish terms into Tsimane’. All Tsimane’ terms become more precise; for example, concepts of monolingual shandyes and yụshñus (~green or blue, used synonymously by Tsimane’ monolinguals; n = 71) come to reflect the Bolivian-Spanish distinction of verde (~green) and azul (~blue). These results show that learning a second language can change the concepts in the first language.

Language contact phenomena in multiword units: The code-switching–calquing continuum

Aims and objectives: Code-switching and calquing are two widespread language contact phenomena in bilingual speech. While both phenomena have been discussed extensively in research on language contact in the past decades, only very few studies systematically investigate code-switching and calquing of and within multiword units or constructions. In our contribution, we aim at developing a more differentiated account of code-switching and calquing of and within multiword units and constructions, bringing together recent usage-based psycholinguistic and Construction Grammar theories and modeling with cognitively oriented approaches to language contact and bilingualism. Design: We analyze and discuss corpus data from the Corpus of Spanish in Southern Arizona (CESA) from first-, second-, and third-generation bilingual Spanish–English speakers in Arizona. Data and analysis: The corpus analysis focuses on code-switching and calquing of and within N Prep N, NN(N), and Adj N/N Adj patterns (N = noun, Prep = preposition, Adj = adjective). Findings/conclusions: The analysis highlights the importance of both lexically specific multiword units and partially and fully schematic constructions in code-switching and calquing as well as a continuum between constructions situated closer to the lexical or to the syntactic pole. Originality: Whereas multiword sequences have been found to play an important role in (mostly first language [L1]) acquisition, use, and processing, the role of multiword units and constructions in bilingual speech has been much less studied so far. Significance/implications: The study shows that both lexically specific constructions or multiword units as well as partially or fully schematic constructions play a central role in code-switching and calquing. The study argues that code-switching and calquing may ultimately be viewed as a continuum, since the speakers rely on similar, highly frequent, and productive constructions and their interlingual correspondences for both phenomena.

Aspectual se and Telicity in Heritage Spanish Bilinguals: The Effects of Lexical Access, Dominance, Age of Acquisition, and Patterns of Language Use

While differences in the production and acceptability of aspectual inflectional morphology between Spanish–English heritage and monolingually raised speakers of Spanish have been argued to support incomplete acquisition approaches to heritage language acquisition, other approaches have argued that differences in access (e.g., lexical access) to representations for receptive and productive purposes are at the core of some of the unique characteristics of heritage language data. We investigate these issues by focusing on the effects of lexical access, dominance, age of acquisition and patterns of language use in heritage Spanish–English bilinguals. We study aspectual se in Spanish, which yields telic interpretations, in expressions such as María se comió la manzana ‘María ate the apple (completely)’ and Maria ate the apple (where completion may not be reached). Our results indicate that se generates telic interpretations for the heritage and monolingually raised group with no group effect. Heritage speakers showed no English effects in terms of lexical access, age of acquisition, patterns of language use or dominance. This suggests that the heritage group did not differ from their monolingually raised counterparts and showed no evidence of incomplete acquisition of telicity.

Cross-language interference in bilinguals with neurodegenerative disorders

AbstractThe aim of the study is to explore the differential effects of neurodegenerative disorders on cross-language interference and facilitation, by comparing the performance in a bilingual Stroop task of Catalan–Spanish bilinguals with different neurodegenerative disorders [Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), n = 16; Alzheimer's disease (AD), n = 16; and Parkinson's disease (PD), n = 16)] and healthy controls (n = 14). Interference is the difference in naming latencies between the incongruent (colour words not matching with their ink colour) and control (non-colour words) conditions. Facilitation is the difference between the control and congruent conditions (colour words matching with their ink colour).The results showed that AD and MCI patients, but not PD, showed a larger interference effect than healthy controls. Nevertheless, the patient groups showed the same facilitation effect as healthy controls.The contribution of cortical and subcortical brain areas to cross-language interference suppression is discussed in relation to the type of brain degeneration.

Synthetic Phonics in Spanish Bilingual Education: Spelling Mistakes Analysis

Reading and writing in English from early ages is both a need and a must. The search of an effective learning methodology to teach early literacy has made the application of the Synthetic Phonics method to expand, regardless of the lack of agreement concerning its results. This study is aimed at showing whether this method is effective or not in bilingual educational centres of Madrid (Spain), focussing on the written skills of 640 students, aged 8-9. The errors committed in a 15-frequenly-used-word dictation have been classified according to Corder’s taxonomy. The non-parametric statistic results show that there are differences in the errors made by the students without specific method instruction (less errors) compared to those students with Synthetic Phonics instruction. However, these differences have lower level of association and do not indicate a relevant direction. Therefore, it could be concluded that Synthetic Phonics does not seem to guarantee an efficient learning of spelling for the Spanish students. There is a need to adapt the Synthetic Phonics method for learners from bilingual schools, as well as to investigate the efficiency of other methodologies to teach writing in English at early stages of literacy.

The sandwich effect in L3 acquisition: A look at the Catalan and Spanish grammars of highly advanced speakers of L3 English

Aims and objectives: This study examines the extent to which the acquisition of a highly advanced third language (L3) will affect previously (early) acquired languages. We directly test the main tenets of the differential stability hypothesis. Design/method/approach: We test 72 Catalan–Spanish bilinguals divided across four groups using two dimensions: (a) order of acquisition and (b) proficiency/exposure in L3 English. We administered two self-paced reading tasks (one in Catalan and the other in Spanish) to explore their processing of negative concord items. Data analysis: Using generalized linear mixed-effects models, we analysed the effect English had on the processing of negative concord items in Catalan and Spanish in three different conditions of interest. Findings/conclusions: The results partially confirm the tenets of the differential stability hypothesis (DSH). We show that first language (L1) and second language (L2) are differentially affected by the acquisition of an L3. We further show that there are different degrees of vulnerability for different syntactic contexts in an L2. We propose a novel effect in the study of L3 regressive effects that can complement the tenets of the DSH: the sandwich effect in L3 acquisition. Originality: The study provides the first empirical investigation of the tenets of the DSH. Significance/implications: This study offers a new effect in L3 acquisition and we put forward how we can test it and propose new directions to explore regressive transfer effects.

Color naming in Tsimane’–Spanish bilinguals indicates that differential experience with content domains affects lexical access

A standard assumption in the bilingual language processing literature is that the ease of access of a word in a language is determined by the speaker’s overall proficiency in the language. Alternatively, it could be that proficiency varies across semantic categories of the bilingual’s two languages. Here, we investigated lexical access in color terms in Tsimane’–Spanish bilinguals. Given that color terms are generally more frequent in Spanish than Tsimane’, participants may have better lexical access for color words in Spanish despite being overall more proficient in Tsimane’. Twenty-two Tsimane’–Spanish bilinguals took part in a picture naming task where participants labeled colors and animals. Participants were equally fast and accurate at naming animals in Tsimane’ and Spanish. However, participants were faster and more accurate at naming colors in Spanish than Tsimane’ except for the three color words that are most frequent (jaibes ~ white, tsincus ~ black, jaines ~ red) in Tsimane’, for which they were equally fast in both Tsimane’ and Spanish. These results suggest that category-specific proficiency is a better predictor for lexical access than overall proficiency.

The Impact of a Monolingual on Spanish Language Code-Switching

Objective: To determine whether Spanish code-switching occurs under laboratory-induced conditions among fluent bilinguals at higher levels compared to a nonintervention control condition.
 Design and Methodology: Fifty-two Spanish bilinguals were randomly assigned to a control or experimental group and participated in a half-hour long face-to-face structured interview in Spanish. Half of the participant population was randomly assigned to the control group and the rest was assigned to the experimental group. The participants in the control group went through the interview without interruption and the number and timing of English code-switching instances were recorded during the interview. During the Spanish interview for the individuals in the experimental group, there was an interruption by a monolingual English experimenter halfway through the session. All instances of code-switching pre- and postinterruption were recorded and compared to the control group. At the conclusion of the Spanish interview, all participants completed an online 87-item questionnaire in English about their linguistic heritage and background.
 Place and Duration of Study: Department of Psychology, Queens University of Charlotte, January 2019 to February 2020.
 Results: The bilinguals in the experimental group, postinterruption, code-switched significantly more than those in the control group. No significant differences in linguistic background or history were found between code-switchers and those who did not code-switch.
 Conclusion: The experimentally designed social interruption during the Spanish interview in the experimental group increased the rate of code-switching among the participants while no such effect was found in the control group. This suggests that the observed code-switching was primarily due to the social interruption rather than any aspect of the interview session setup itself.