Triggers in L2 acquisition: The case of Spanish N-N compounds

• Juana M. Liceras ^[1] ; Lourdes Díaz ^[2]
  1. [1] University of Ottawa

     University of Ottawa

     Canadá

     
  2. [2] Universitat Pompeu Fabra

     Universitat Pompeu Fabra

     Barcelona, España

     
• Localización: Studia linguistica: A journal of general linguistics, ISSN 0039-3193, Vol. 54, Nº 2, 2000, págs. 197-211
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.1111/1467-9582.00060
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• Dialnet Métricas: 1 Cita
• Resumen

  • Spanish has left-headed compounds which are not as productive as their left-headed counterparts in other languages. This presence or absence of productivity has been attributed to a binary parameter according to which N-N compounding, as opposed to nominal constructions in which the head noun takes a complement as in ‘the destruction of the city’, would be the superset or marked option. Furthermore, the idiosyncratic nature of Spanish N-N compounding has been attributed to the make-up of Spanish Nouns. Specifically, it has been proposed that Spanish Nouns have a ‘word marker’ which triggers L1 acquisition of these constructions. Based on the results of two picture tests intended to elicit actual command of N-N compounding strategies, as well as word order patterns and gender marking patterns, we argue that: 1) N-N compounding is not a marked construction; 2) adult L2 acquisition of Spanish N-N compounds is triggered by head directionality (a processing trigger) rather than by the ‘word marker’ (a representational trigger) which is supposed to trigger L1 acquisition of these compounds.