Spanish Linguistics Commons^™

Spanish Nominalizations And Case Assignment, Dr. Jeff Renaud, Tania Leal

Celebration of Learning

Nominalizations are syntactic structures wherein verbal roots co-occur with verbal and nominal properties, classifying them as verbal (VN) (El andar el niño tan tarde) or nominal (NN) (El andar errabundo del niño). While NNs mark agents genitive (del niño), VNs require nominative agents (el niño). NNs co-occur with adjectives (errabundo), whereas VNs co-occur with adverbs (tan tarde). Alexiadou et al. (2011) posit separate syntactic structures for the two. In this study, we investigate via self-paced reading task the types of case available in each structure, providing evidence of …

Acquiring Native-Like Norms Of Making A Request In Spanish During Short-Term Study Abroad In Argentina And Spain, Christine H. Song

LSU Master's Theses

The current study examines if L2 learners of Spanish acquire native-like norms of making a request during short-term study abroad in Argentina and Spain via Discourse Completion Tasks (DCT). The investigation included 3 groups of the participants: an experimental group of 15 U.S. students who studied in Argentina or Spain; a control group of 12 U.S. students who had not studied abroad; and a control group of 7 native speakers of Spanish. The results show that students in the study abroad group became more native-like in making a request to a certain extent. Firstly, the students in the experimental group …

The Microvariation Of The Spanish Perfect In Three Varieties, Paz González, Margarita Jara Yupanqui, Carmen Kleinherenbrink

Department of World Languages Faculty Research

This study investigates the variability in the use of the Preterit canté (‘I sang’) and the Present Perfect he cantado (‘I have sung’) across three Spanish dialects: Peninsular (PEN), Peruvian (PER) and Argentinian (AR). For this purpose, we analyze the effect of type of context and temporal adverbials on the selection of these two forms. The corpus has been obtained through online questionnaires, comprising a total of thirty-two exercises that evaluate the use of the two verb forms in the following contexts: continuative, relevance of present, life experience, prehodiernal context and without temporal adverbs. The results of this research seek …

"Our Roots:": Latinx Parents' Language Ideologies Concerning Bilingualism, Akanne S. Torres Beltran

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Language is a fundamental component of one's identity, as well as a means of surviving in a globalizing world. This study draws upon sixteen narratives of first-generation Mexican and Puerto Rican parents in Central Florida to answer the research question: What are the language ideologies of Mexican and Puerto Rican immigrant parents towards the English Language acquisition and Spanish Language retention of their children? The information was gathered through semi-structured interviews and it aimed to learn how and if they value English and Spanish bilingualism and whether it was desired for their children. On the one hand, they are aware …

Dp Internal Codeswitching By Spanish And English Bilinguals In The Us, Yurena Castaño-Nuñez

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Codeswitching studies the boundaries that exist at all linguistic levels when a speaker switches between two or more languages in a single moment of speech.

(i) En el restaurante he pedido la big hamburguesa.

‘At the restaurant I have ordered the big hamburger.’

(ii) Juan conoce la highway para llegar a Washington D.C.

‘Juan knows the highway to get to Washington D.C.’

(iii) A Carmen no le gustan los pantalones cortos. A ella le gustan los long ones.

‘Carmen doesn’t like short pants. She likes the long ones.’

This thesis concentrates on the study of switches between adjectives and Noun …

The New Spanish Future Subjunctive, Amy S. Orf

Conference Presentations

Previous studies of the Spanish future subjunctive all discuss the forms ending in –re, –res, –re, –remos, –reis, –ren, which resulted from the merger of the Latin future perfect indicative, perfect subjunctive, and imperfect subjunctive (Lloyd, 1987). These forms have all but disappeared from the modern language, having largely been replaced by the present subjunctive (Whitley, 2002). However, Spanish has a new future subjunctive. This presentation examines the subjunctive with ir a + infinitive constructions, as found in El Corpus de Referencia del Español Actual.

Second Language Acquisition Of Voicing Patterns In Spanish Sibilants, William Hagerman

Honors College Research

In the current study, English-speaking students enrolled in an upper-level university Spanish class read a series of sentences that are designed to elicit alveolar sibilants [s, z] in coda position, both word-internal and word-final. Samples are analyzed using Praat (Boersma & Weenink 2005), and data analysis compares the duration of voicing of each sibilant to the total sibilant duration to determine the percentage of voicing assimilation. Given that voicing assimilation in native Spanish is variable rather than categorical (Romero 1999; Schmidt & Willis 2011; Garcia 2013), a control group of native speakers provides a comparison sample. Given the differences of …

Context Of Learning And Second Language Development Of Spanish Vowels, Avizia Long, Megan Solon, Silvina Bongiovanni

Faculty Publications

The present study explored development in Spanish vowel production during a short-term study abroad program. The production patterns of a group of learners studying abroad in a 4-week program in the Dominican Republic were compared in terms of overall vowel quality, tendency to diphthongize /e/ and /o/, and vowel duration to those of a similar group of learners studying in the at-home context. Results revealed no significant changes or differences between groups in vowel quality or diphthongization, but a significant improvement (i.e., reduction) in vowel duration for /a/, /o/, and /u/ for the at-home group only. Findings are discussed in …

Cross-Cultural Analysis Of Turn-Taking Practices In English And Spanish Conversations, Claudia B. Martínez

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

Conversation analysis is primarily concerned with the tacit rules of turn-taking in standard systems of conversation—that is, with how people maneuver through spoken conversations to make themselves heard, while still allowing for dialogue to take place. Sacks, Schegloff & Jefferson had largely influenced the groundwork for this field in the late 1970s by setting forth certain proprieties of speech that deem overlaps, or interruptions, generally untoward and counterproductive. My goal here is to rethink this theory, however, to illuminate certain culturally specific instances of overlapping that do indeed lend themselves to the flow of the conversation. I compare such instances …

A Sociophonetic Study Of /S/ Weakening In Andalusian Spanish, Elisa Taylor

Scripps Senior Theses

The phenomenon of /s/ weakening is common among many varieties of Spanish, from Latin America to southern Spain (Lipski (2011), Samper Padilla (2011)). This project will focus specifically on coda /s/ weakening in Andalusian Spanish, the social factors that influence it, and the language ideologies surrounding the dialect. Previous research has found that social factors influencing /s/ weakening include social class, gender, and education level (Lipski (2011), Samper Padilla (2011), Holmquist (2008), Terrell (1981), Fontanella de Weinberg (1973)). Studies on /s/ weakening in Andalusian Spanish have mainly focused on the functional compensation for the loss of /s/, but little research …

Self-Esteem In Spanish-Speaking Latinos In Northwest Ohio, Mckenna Freeman

Honors Projects

Self-esteem is a widely-studied construct across many disciplines of social science. However, previous research regarding self-esteem and language barriers has focused primarily on children and adolescent populations, while much less research has examined this relationship among adults. The current study measures linguistic acculturation and self-esteem in both Latino and control adult samples. Hypothesis 1 states that participants in the Latino sample would report significantly lower self-esteem than the control sample. Hypothesis 2 states that linguistic acculturation levels in Spanish speaking Latinos would be positively correlated with self-esteem. Finally, a research question was addressed measuring the differences in self-esteem between foreign …

A Portfolio Of Lesson Plans For A High School Spanish Classroom With Critical Reflection, Jasmyn Chacko

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This Capstone projects features a portfolio of lesson plans along with assessments of these lesson plans, written by a site supervisor, and journal entries, written personally after teaching the lesson in the classroom. After reviewing and analyzing all of these documents, general reflections were written to show the changes I made over time and to consider what future improvements I commit to make. These general reflections will be supplemented with current research in the field of second language pedagogy and the critique written by my site supervisor. Overall, the goal of this Capstone project is to produce useful materials in …

Estas Rimas Son Para Ti: Exploring Learners Comprehension Of Spanish Language Music Containing Dialectical Features, Avizia Y. Long, Megan Harsh

Faculty Publications

This paper reports the findings of a study that examined native English‐speaking learners’ comprehension of Spanish language music containing Caribbean dialectal features. Twenty‐one learners enrolled in 300‐ and 400‐level Spanish content courses at a large, Midwestern public university in the US participated in this study. Each participant completed the following five tasks: (1) listening task, (2) listening task difficulty questionnaire, (3) vocabulary familiarity task, (4) Spanish language proficiency test, and (5) background questionnaire. The listening task contained short clips of Spanish language music, several of which contained dialectal features present in Caribbean speech and music. The results revealed that comprehension …

It Just Doesn’T Add Up: Grammatical Number In Spanish And English, Amy S. Orf

Conference Presentations

This presentation examines the differences in grammatical number between Spanish and English, with respect to both the lexicon and agreement. These differences result in common errors by English-speaking students, such as yo pedí el camarón (“I ordered the shrimp”), tengo muchas ropas (“I have a lot of clothes”), mi postre favorito es las galletas (“my favorite dessert is cookies”), and me gustan cantar y bailar (“singing and dancing please me”). By highlighting the differences between Spanish and English, instructors can help their students avoid these pitfalls.

Bilingual (Spanish-English) Marketing As A Catalyst For Cultural Awareness: The Effect On Parents In The Toy Market, Margo K. Bailey

Honors Scholar Theses

Due to globalization, multinational companies are increasingly cognizant of the language used in marketing materials. The growing Hispanic population in the U.S. and the increasing desire to learn and consume English in Spain makes marketers think twice about how they use language. This research is multi-method, using in-depth interviews and an experiment to learn more about how languages are used in advertisements to target monolingual and bilingual consumers within a country, and how consumers respond to monolingual and bilinguals advertisements.

I started by interviewing two marketing managers with experience in bilingual advertising in various media to better understand their decisions …

Bilingualism And The American Family, Caitlin M. Nickerson

Senior Honors Projects

Bilingualism is the ability to speak more than one language fluently. People of all ages may aspire to learn a second or third language in order to fulfill both personal goals and communicate with a variety of people in different contexts. Irrespective of one’s walk of life or socioeconomic status, being bilingual is a valuable skill. Although English is the language of power in the United States, there are hundreds of other languages spoken in this country.

There are a number of different ways in which children can become bilingual. For example, they may enter the school system speaking the …

The Immersion Process: Cross-Cultural Language Learning, Rachel Lunsford

Senior Theses

This study seeks to analyze the effects of motivation, awareness, and the immersion process through study abroad on foreign language production. Three participants were analyzed, two of which studied abroad and one who did not (my control case). Two of the three participants lacked the variable of awareness, measured as perception and reflection on language learning development, while only one participant (Participant M) who studied abroad in both Costa Rica and Spain, was made aware of her own learning process via a language learner’s journal and monthly recorded conversations. By studying abroad in two Spanish-speaking countries, Participant M selfreported the …

Effectively Teaching A Second Language: Principles And Practices, Alexander Gatica

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio is the amalgamation of the author’s research and experience during his time in the Master of Second Language Teaching program. The first section contains the Teaching Philosophy, which centers on applying effective teaching methods, increasing learner motivation, and incorporating technology into the classroom. The next section consists of three artifacts in which the author further investigates specific aspects of language teaching. The language paper focuses on the effect that identity has on motivation to learn a language. The literacy paper discusses how to increase vocabulary acquisition via a mobile-assisted language learning application called Duolingo. The culture paper addresses …

Racismo Y Lenguaje, Michele Back, Virgina Zavala

Faculty Published Works

Este libro busca contribuir al estudio de los procesos de racialización y de la construcción discursiva de nuevas identidades en el Perú contemporáneo. En lugar de abordar el racismo desde una dimensión cognitiva, se interesa por el rol que las prácticas lingüísticas cumplen en su constitución. Las diez contribuciones que integran este volumen examinan los discursos y las prácticas del racismo en ámbitos diversos y discuten las sutiles formas en las que se construye a un «otro» desde un criterio aparentemente no racial, pero bajo retóricas raciales de modo subyacente. Todos los artículos abordan la forma en que la raza …

Defining Spanglish: A Linguistic Categorization Of Spanish-English Code-Switching In The United States, Leah Mernaugh

Honors Projects

This paper will linguistically explore the forms of Spanish spoken by Spanish-English bilinguals in the United States in order to argue that Spanglish is a complex linguistic system governed by a set of specific linguistic rules and patterns. I will do this by drawing on previous research in this field that examines the phonological patterns, morphological trends, and syntactic constraints that govern acceptable code switches between English and Spanish (Otheguy, 1993; Rodriguez-Gonzalez and Parafita-Couto, 2012; Rothman and Rell, 2005; Lipski, 2008; et al.). This evaluation of Spanglish will also include description and assessment of different arguments regarding how it can …

Evaluative Reactions To Nonnative Spanish, Nyssa Knarvik, Cecily Corbett

Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Other Graduate Student Scholarship

This study investigates whether there is a relationship between the native Spanish “Rater” evaluative reactions of Spanish spoken by second-language learners, called “Talkers,” based on the distance of their first language from Spanish. The Talkers’ first languages are grouped by distance from Spanish: close (Brazilian Portuguese and French), mid (Serbian and Polish), and far (Korean and Chinese). The Raters (n=50) are played recordings of the six Talkers reading the same story in Spanish and they are asked to rate each Talker on a 7-point Likert scale in 15 different categories (e.g. unintelligent/intelligent, easy/difficult to understand, and outgoing/shy). Results show statistically …

Toggling The Switches, Zach Thomas

Bridges: A Journal of Student Research

In this paper, I use Richard Lanham's work within the field of rhetoric to explore the rhetorical implications of multilingualism and code switching. Specifically, I will discuss and question some of the basic assumptions of employing another language: What is at stake when we communicate with others in another language, especially native speakers? How might using an L2 language and recognizing/using different dialects within that language cause a speaker to reconsider their native tongue? What does the presence of numerous regional peculiarities and nonstandard varieties within languages say about our desire for "ideal" or "standard" speech?

Agitando Lo Cotidiano. Una Conversación Sobre El Desafío Ⓐnarquista Frente Al Sexismo En El Lenguaje, Mariel Mercedes Acosta Matos, Ernesto Cuba

Publications and Research

Ernesto Cuba entrevista a Mariel Acosta acerca de los hallazgos en sus tesis de maestría, que aborda las propuestas de morfemas de género inclusivo en publicaciones anarquistas de habla hispana, entre las que se halla el uso de " @ " , " x " y otras innovaciones ortográficas que buscan desafiar el sesgo androcéntrico de la lengua. Palabras clave: Lenguaje no-sexista; anarquismo; ortografía; sociolingüística; estudios de lenguaje y género; español.

Ernesto Cuba interviews Mariel Acosta about the findings in hers master's thesis, which addresses the proposals of inclusive gender morphemes in Spanish-language anarchist publications, among which is the use …

A Linguistic Comparison: Stress-Timed And Syllable-Timed Languages And Their Impact On Second Language Acquisition, Madeline M. Conlen

Honors College Theses

Acquisition of a second language can be a challenging task because no two languages are alike in their structure, syllabification, pronunciation, rhythm, etc. Also, after speaking one language for any amount of time, the speaker becomes accustomed to the specific qualities of that language; therefore, learning to speak another language takes extra effort because it is essentially rewiring the brain to think differently in many ways. One important element of language is prosody, or the patterns of stress and intonation in language (Dilley et al 237). The subsector of prosody that is to be studied is rhythm, explicitly isochrony and …

Una Entrada En La Vida De Las Mujeres Inmigrantes: Una Exposición Visual Para Representar Las Experiencias De Mujeres Inmigrantes De México A Través De Retratos Y Entrevistas, Ashley Ables

World Languages and Cultures

Una entrada en la vida de las mujeres inmigrantes:

Una exposición visual para representar las experiencias de mujeres inmigrantes de México a través de retratos y entrevistas

Ashley Ables

California Polytechnic State University

Intent:

The intent of my project is to research the lives of migrant, farm-working women who have migrated from Mexico and now live and work in California. The other purpose is to present the findings to the Cal Poly and San Luis Obispo communities through interviews and artistic expression.

Methodology:

In order to research and present the lives of these women, I plan to do the following: …

Perception And Production Of Phonetic Stress In Spanish: An Investigation Of Native Speakers And Non-Native Learners, Benjamin Stoltenberg, Elizabeth Enkin

UCARE: Research Products

In recent years, foreign language studies have become an area of great interest, given that students must be prepared to take on a career in a globalized world. Consequently, there is a growing incentive to learn a second language, and especially Spanish given that it is the most-studied foreign language in the United States. Language courses designed for majors and minors generally center on the analysis and discussion of sounds, morphological processes and grammatical constructions. However, little is known about the nature of specific difficulties that may arise for native speakers of English when they interpret spoken speech in Spanish. …

Motivaciones Comunicativas Para La Expresión De Sujeto En Secuencias Clausales Correferenciales En Español, Berenice Darwich

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines subject expression in co-referential clauses in Spanish from a functional and discourse perspective. The purpose of this quantitative and qualitative investigation is to provide a strategy of communication that accounts for the presence or absence of subject expression in the second clause of a co-referential clausal sequence. Specifically, it is proposed that that subject expression, in this environment, is a discourse strategy for the use of the meanings of the personal pronouns and nominal phrases available for the speaker’s communicative purposes, and that this discourse strategy forestalls the competition for the status of discourse theme in the …

El Español En Los Estados Unidos: Panorama De Estudios Sociolingüísticos, Lotfi Sayahi, Juanita Reyes, Cecily Corbett

Languages, Literatures and Cultures Faculty Scholarship

The aim of this paper is to present the principal areas of sociolinguistic research concerning Spanish spoken in the United States. In doing so, we focus on a variety of topics ranging from macro-sociolinguistic issues, such as the sociology of language, to micro-sociolinguistic features having more to do with language variation and change. In our discussion of bilingualism and sociology of language, we explore the situation faced by Spanish speakers in the United States, including discussions of language policies and bilingual education. We also examine cases of contact between various dialects of Spanish in the United States, and some variable …

Comparing The Opi And The Opic: The Effect Of Test Method On Oral Proficiency Scores And Student Preference, Troy L. Cox, Gregory L. Thompson, Nieves Knapp

Faculty Publications

While studies have been done to rate the validity and reliability of the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) and Oral Proficiency Interview–Computer (OPIc) independently, a limited amount of research has analyzed the interexam reliability of these tests, and studies have yet to be conducted comparing the results of Spanish language learners who take both exams. For this study, 154 Spanish language learners of various proficiency levels were divided into two groups and administered both the OPI and OPIc within a 2-week period using a counterbalanced design. In addition, study participants took both a pre- and postsurvey that gathered data about their …

Inadequate Translations: Spanish/English Discrepancies In The Translated Sonnets Of Garcilaso De La Vega, Jessica V. Palmer

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The intimate relationship one develops with his or her native language is an experience which cannot be replicated through any amount of education. Diction, vocabulary, intonation and the connotations which accompany the many facets of language all develop along with us as we progress through life's experiences. Because of this deeply ingrained personal understanding, each individual's perspective towards a work of art, namely poetry, is completely unique to his or her experiences with the language in which it is written. Therefore, no amount of diligent translation can make a poem inhabit the same sentiment and effect in any language other …