Abstract
The container-content relation represents a set of nominal configurations unexplored in the acquisition literature. Whereas in English the switch from a noun-noun compound (water bottle) to a noun-prepositional phrase (bottle of water) is associated with a semantic shift from container to content, Spanish and Arabic adopt single canonical configurations for both conditions, noun-prepositional phrase and noun phrase, respectively. Importantly, Spanish, Arabic, and English display structural overlap in the content condition maintained by head-first isomorphic strings. In the container condition, they show structural dissimilarity; whereas English uses a head-final construction, Arabic and Spanish consistently use head-first constructions. Results from an elicited sentence-reordering task demonstrate that advanced late learners pattern native speakers when tested in Spanish but not when tested in English. Additionally, when tested in English, Arabic-speaking and Spanish-speaking learners overextend their L1 canonical configurations to both conditions. Furthermore, bilingual native speakers do not perform at ceiling, suggesting bidirectional cross-linguistic influence.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 411-445 |
Number of pages | 35 |
Journal | Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism |
Volume | 8 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 1 2018 |
Keywords
- Bidirectional cross-linguistic influence
- Container-content relation
- Structural overlap
- Syntax-semantics interface
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Language and Linguistics
- Linguistics and Language