The present study examines the nature of the Spanish rhotics experimentally, investigating the possibilities that the trill is best understood as deriving from an underlying geminate or that the tap and trill may be separate phonemes. In order to explore these two theories, a behavioral task was designed exploiting the absence of native words in…

Central America, including El Salvador, has been cited as the least studied of the Spanish-language dialect zones. The paucity of linguistic research extends to the language use of these populations in the United States, including that of Salvadorans who have relocated there. This paper analyzes Salvadorans' utilization of "voseo" and…

This investigation contributes to the understanding of language attitudes toward consonantal deletion by examining its perception using a matched-guise experiment (Casesnoves and Sankoff 2004; Lambert, Hodgson, Gardner, and Fillenbaum 1960) with fifteen listeners. Two experiments were designed for testing language attitudes, one toward…

Examines the Spanish imperative paradigm and Ramsey's notion that all forms of Spanish imperatives are substituted by subjunctives in the first and third person. The concept of deontic modality in demonstrating the relationships among imperative and imperativelike patterns that carry the meaning of obligation, permission, and prohibition is also…

The evolution of the Latin "teneo venio" to the Spanish "tengo vengo" is analyzed, including Menendez Pidal's influential treatment of the problem and some recent explanations. The hypothesis that loss of flexional yod was the fundamental cause of analogical structuring is reviewed, and a new hypothesis is proposed. (Contains 30 references.)…

Presents examples of how children acquire language through the principles-and-parameters model, a highly modular system in which different theories interact so that only permissible sequences arise, and highlights research on Spanish syntax and semantics. (136 references) (CB)

A review of the significant advances made in the study of Spanish language history during the 1980s describes recent developments in introductory textbooks, manuals, external histories, phonological research, morphological research, syntactic research, semantic research, dictionaries, learned vocabularies, bibliographies, and literary research.…

An assessment of the substantive progress made regarding the study of language contact and bilingualism in the Hispanic world explores research concerning language contact and grammars, the bilingual speech community and linguistic structure, and bilingual discourse. (45 references) (CB)

Titles of completed dissertations and those in preparation dealing with hispanic languages and literature are listed. This is useful to professors and graduate students to give them the opportunity to gain an overview of the literary currents, genres, themes and authors. (NCR)

Examines such universal linguistic phenomena as simplification, overgeneralization, transfer, analysis, and convergence, and their corresponding theories regarding creolization, language acquisition, and language loss. A study of the Spanish verb system of Los Angeles bilinguals indicates that the continuous influx of new Spanish-speaking…

Presents a review of selected influential works in Spanish applied linguistics in the twentieth century, with an accompanying bibliography. The research is divided into four eras, which are defined by "paradigm shifts" that occur when significant changes are perceived in the following areas: psychological/second language acquisition theories,…

Discusses four major outcomes of studies on language acquisition and the dimensions of the concept of communicative competence that need to be substantiated empirically. Warns that classroom teachers may go further than theoreticians in condemning the teaching of grammar, as if communication were something to be acquired in spite of grammatical…

Analysis of the term "communicative" as used by scholars and realized in textbooks suggests a gap between theory and practice and substantial differences between the perspectives held by scholars and those held by instructors, publishers, and others. Differences are reviewed and their sources traced to attempts to adapt the term itself to existing…