This study shows how transfer, governed by the Transfer Principle, interacts with other second language acquisition processes and gives rise to some of the morphosyntactic features of Andean Spanish object agreement system (in particular, ...
This is a study of the psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic factors that influence the use of optional plural morphology and number agreement among bilingual speakers of Yucatec Maya and Spanish. The conceptual factor of set size was determined to influence the production of optional plural morphology and agreement in this population. Speakers were more likely to use plural morphology on the noun and number agreement on the verb when a larger set size, e.g. seven versus two, was depicted. The opposite was found for the mention of a number word. Speakers were less likely to mention the number word in response to a larger set size. For this study, we recruited participants who range in age from 5 to 48 years old and who range in level of education from no formal education to some college education. Though age was not a predictor of the use of plural morphology or number agreement, speakers with higher levels of education produced significantly more plural morphology on nouns but not on verbs. A language-internal explanation is proposed to address this finding. I discuss the implications of these findings for populations served by Speech-Language Pathologists.
This is a study of the psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic factors that influence the use of optional plural morphology and number agreement among bilingual speakers of Yucatec Maya and Spanish.
