Current Projects
Copula selection with adjectives
This project deals with the acquisition of the subtle distinction between the Spanish copulas SER and ESTAR followed by adjectives in comprehension. Through picture choice tasks we explore whether children can keep track of linguistic discourse as well as their use of knowledge of the world in the comprehension of these two verbs. Studies so far do not find an advantage for resorting to world knowledge in order to interpret sentences with SER. Also, through the use of novel adjectives this study has shown that children can extend the temporary meaning of ESTAR to novel adjectives. |
Variable Clitic Placement
This project explores how Spanish-speaking children acquire a subtle case of word order variation known as Spanish variable Direct Object pronoun (clitic) placement. Variationist studies of spoken corpora show that adults prefer to place pronouns such as lo/los/la/las either before or after certain verbal constructions depending on lexical, semantic and discourse factors. This project investigates the degree to which children's use of these clitic pronouns resembles that of adult speakers. Several tasks are used to elicit pronoun use, such as Elicited Imitation and Elicited Production. |
Indicative vs. Subjunctive Mood Selection
This project explores how Spanish-speaking children acquire the use of the Subjunctive mood in particular contexts that select for this mood (as opposed to the Indicative mood). these contexts can be categorical (Volition and Adverbials wit future meaning) or variable, such as Comment or Uncertainty. This line of research shows that mood selection across contexts can take several years for children to acquire. |
Lexicalization of Motion Events
Different languages encode information differently. One such difference between English and Spanish pertains the expression of different components of motion events. This project explores the expression of Ground (source and goal) in verbs of falling. While both English and Spanish allow these to be expressed through sattellites (e.g., adverbials, prepositional phrases), these expressions of Ground are more frequent in English than in Spanish. Here we analyze whether Spanish-English bilingual children acquire this distinction in each of their languages (English, the majority language and Spanish, the heritage language.) |
Adjective+Noun vs. Noun+Adjective in Spanish
This project focuses on the acquisition of the position of adjectives with respect to nouns in Spanish where adjectives can appear pre- or post-nominally. We investigate patterns of adjective placement in child-directed speech and in very young children's language production. |
Morphological cues in the processing of WHICH-questions
This project examines when and to what extent Spanish-speaking children make use of number agreement and Differential Object Marking in the processing of Which-questions such as "Which cow is the dockey kicking?" where the answer is the direct object (patient) of the verb "kick" and there are more then one cow in the picture (some of which are even doing some kicking, but only one cow is receiving the donkey´s kick). Children hear sentences where number agreement on the verb as well as DOM are manipulated to see the extent to which these cues help children comprehend the questions. |