Inacusativos en el inglés L2 de hispanohablantes: qué nos dicen los errores sobre la representación mental y las intuiciones de esos hablantes / Unaccusatives in L2 English by Spanish-speakers: what errors reveal about the speakers’ mental representation and intuitions
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Abstract
Este trabajo discute la realización del sujeto en inglés como Lengua Segunda en casos de mapeos no canónicos entre roles temáticos y funciones sintácticas, específicamente en estructuras inacusativas. La lengua materna de los alumnos en este estudio es español, la que difiere del inglés en dos aspectos cruciales: (i) en inglés, a diferencia del español, el sujeto es explícito, y (ii) en oraciones declarativas el sujeto precede al verbo, mientras que el español permite sujetos posverbales en algunos casos, particularmente en oraciones inacusativas y pasivas. Examinaremos esta cuestión por medio de dos tareas experimentales: una sobre juicios de gramaticalidad y otra sobre traducción inversa. El propósito final es explorar la relación entre los errores y las intuiciones lingüísticas de los alumnos, así como el papel de una enseñanza basada en el análisis lingüístico.
Palabras clave: inacusativos, roles temáticos y funciones sintácticas, adquisición de la segunda lengua
ABSTRACT
This paper addresses the realisation of the subject in L2 English in a case of non-canonical mapping between theta roles and syntactic functions, specifically in the case of unaccusatives. The learners’ L1 is Spanish, which differs from English in two crucial respects: (i) in English, as opposed to Spanish, the subject is obligatorily overt, and (ii) in English, declarative sentences the subject precedes the finite verb, while Spanish allows for postverbal subjects in some cases, notably with unaccusatives and passives. We will examine the issue by means of a grammaticality judgment and a translation task. The final aim is to explore the relation between errors and linguistic intuitions of the learners, as well as the importance of linguistically informed teaching.
Keywords: unaccusatives, thematic roles and syntactic functions, second language acquisition
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