Resumen de Spanish and English contact and morpheme acquisition

Daniel Smith

• Regarding the order of morpheme acquisition in both first language (L1) and second language (L2) acquisiton there appears to be a so-called 'natural order' of acquisition.  In addition, there are peculiarities which are part of the morphosyntax of any language influencing the order of morpheme acquisition in L2, whether it be from the L1, or as in the case of simultaneous bilinguals, another L1.  We use Myers-Scotton's (2002) 4-M model to help us analyze and discuss the data. The analysis shows a tendency for speakers to acquire language morphology in a natural order, regardless of the L1, but with special reference to Spanish and English we show that the two languages can influence each other and make changes in the order of acquisition.