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The acquisition of ser, estar (and be) by a Spanish–English bilingual child: The early stages*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 November 2008

CARMEN SILVA-CORVALÁN  and
SIMONA MONTANARI
CARMEN SILVA-CORVALÁN*
Affiliation:
University of Southern California
SIMONA MONTANARI
Affiliation:
California State University, Los Angeles
*
Address for correspondence: Carmen Silva-Corvalán, 1253 Rimmer Ave., Pacific Palisades, CA 90272-2546, USAcsilva@usc.edu
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Abstract

This article studies the acquisition of copulas by a Spanish–English bilingual between the ages of 1;6 and 3;0, examines the possibility of interlanguage influence, and considers the distributional frequencies of copular constructions in the speech of the child and in the language input from adults. The study is of interest because the bilingual child needs to acquire semantic and syntactic contrasts in Spanish that are not explicitly marked in English. This difference raises questions about the timing of acquisition of the Spanish copulas under pressure from a stronger language, in addition to the language-internal questions concerning the acquisition of the semantics and syntax of these verbs. The results show that copular constructions develop autonomously, but with a slight delay in the acquisition of estar interpreted as a possible type of influence from English. The distributional analysis reveals parallels between the child's and the adults' uses of copulas, thus supporting a process of acquisition guided by the nature of the interactions that the child enters into with the adults who surround him.

Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 11 , Issue 3: LANGUAGE ACQUISITION, BILINGUALISM AND COPULA CHOICE IN SPANISH , November 2008 , pp. 341 - 360
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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Footnotes

*

We are grateful to Nancy Dorian for her insightful questions and comments, and to Cecilia Rojas, Xóchitl Ponce, Pilar Soto, and Paula Alonqueo for enlightening discussions on early language acquisition and, in particular, on the acquisition of ser and estar. We would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their useful comments and suggestions. All errors remain our responsibility.

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