Caitlin E. Samples

The University of Georgia

caitlin.samples@uga.edu

​

South Central Modern Language Association

October 13-15, 2022

​

Determiner Choice in Possessive Structures and its Semantic Implications in L2 Spanish

Syntax Meets Semantics:

Introduction

• Both definite and possessive determiners can head possessive determiner phrases (DPs) in Spanish and English.
• My house/mi casa
• I hit myself on the head
• Me rasco la cara

​

• However, the contexts in which each determiner type occurs do not necessarily overlap between languages (Solano-Escobar 2021).

​

• This lack of overlap between Spanish and English could lead to difficulties for L1 English-L2 Spanish learners (see Pérez-Leroux, et al. 2002 and Montrul & Ionin 2012).

​

• L2 textbooks do not always devote a lot of attention to these differences.

​

2

• The interactions of syntax with other linguistic modules.

​

• Key syntactic and semantic differences between English and Spanish possessive structures.

​

• The learning task for L1 English-L2 Spanish students.

​

• Spanish Learner Language Oral Corpora (SPLLOC) examples.

​

• Task-based activities.

​

Agenda

3

How Syntax Interfaces with Other Linguistic Modules

White (2009), cited in Rothman & Slabakova (2011).

Internal Interfaces

External Interfaces

Narrow Syntax

Basic Possessive Structure Syntax

Internal Possessive DP

​

Su coche/cara

His car/face

External Possessive DP

​

José_i perdió el_i móvil/se_i lava la_i cara

…Joe_i lost the_i cell phone/washes the_*i/j face

Joe_i was hit in the_i face

owned item

owner

Pérez-Leroux, et al. (2002:189)

[pro]

5

Map of European Languages with and without Dative External Possessive DPs

Haspelmath (1999:7)

without

with

Joe_i was hit in the_i face

José_i se_i lava la_i cara

Joe_i washes his_i face

6

Syntax and Semantics: English vs. Spanish

Montrul & Ionin (2012:81)

7

Inalienable Possession Structures: Spanish vs. English

Solano-Escobar (2021:27)

Prototypical Uses of External Possessive Dative DPs in European Languages

Haspelmath (1999:4); Conti (2011:175)

More Prototypical

Less Prototypical

Possessor Type

Predicate Type

9

Prototypical Uses of External Possessive Dative DPs in European Languages

Haspelmath (1999:4); Conti (2011:175)

More Prototypical

Less Prototypical

Possessum Type

Possessum Role

10

The Learning Task for L1 English-L2 Spanish Speakers

• Acquire the D(eterminer) features in the external possession construction, which motivate possessor movement from Spec, NP to Spec, DP (Pérez Leroux, et al. 2002).
• By acquiring these features, learners can transition from using internal possessive structures to external ones.
• Pérez Leroux, et al. (2002) found that sentence structures such as�José se lava la cara were acquired, but that structures like Pedro levanta la mano were not.

​

• Expand the range of interpretations available to definite determiners (Montrul & Ionin 2012).
• From only alienable interpretations to both alienable and inalienable interpretations.
• Pérez Leroux, et al. (2002) assume that acquiring syntactic structures entails acquiring their semantics as well.

​

• Align their uses of internal and external possessive structures with native-speaker prototypes (see Haspelmath 1999 and Conti 2011).
• Will this happen? At which stage?

​

​

​

​

11

• Photos + Interview task

​

• Considered 2 speech samples from each level
• Year 9 (A1)
• Year 13 (B1-B2)
• Undergraduate (C1-C2)
• Native

​

• Year 9
• un chico ponen los vaqueros .

​

​

​

​

• Undergraduate
• lo que nos atrae la atención es que la arena que es muy [/] muy blanca um y .

​

• Native
• pues nada fue una cosa que se me metió en la cabeza hace tres años .
• el estudio se ha llevado gran parte de mi tiempo .

​

​

Examples of Dative Possessive DPs from SPLLOC I

Are these two students acquiring Spanish possessive structure syntax, or is something else happening? Substitution of los for unos? Use of fixed expressions (atraernos la atención)?

12

What is Task-Based Learning and Teaching (TBLT)?

• “Teaching that is based entirely on tasks. Such teaching makes use of a procedural syllabus” (Ellis 2003:351).
• Procedural syllabus: “consist[s] of a graded set of tasks to be performed by the learners” (Ellis 2003:348).

​

• Characteristics of tasks (Ellis 2003:9-10):
• “workplan[s]” with a specific end goal
• students can listen, read, speak, and/or write
• “cognitive processes,” i.e., the types of activities learners do while executing the task
• “real-world communication”

​

13

Advantages of TBLT

• Several advantages of TBLT have been noted (Richards & Rodgers 114:176-177, citing Leaver & Kaplan 2004:61 and Richards, forthcoming).

​

• Course outcomes: better able to correct errors; have “greater curricular flexibility.”

​

• Student attitudes: feel less bored, more motivated; enjoy class more.

​

• Student communication: learn to convey desired meaning and communicate faster.

​

• Student performance: take risks; “learn…how to learn;” perform better with language.

14

Pedagogic Task

• These are “[t]asks designed to elicit communicative language use in the classroom, e.g., Spot-the-difference. Such tasks do not necessarily bear any resemblance to real-world tasks although they are intended to lead to patterns of language use similar to those found in the real world” (Ellis 2003:347).

15

• Teachers would select two images depicting possession, such as these.

​

• Students describe the similarities and differences between the images using possessive sentences.
• En el segundo dibujo, el niño con el suéter amarillo le agarra la mano a su padre, pero en el primero, no.
• En el primer dibujo, un niño juega con su balón, pero en el segundo, lo lleva.

​

Pedagogic Task

https://staywise.co.uk/public/resource/interactive-spot-the-difference-road-safety

16

Text Reconstruction Task

• “A task that requires learners to read or listen to a text that has been seeded with a specific structure and subsequently to reconstruct it as accurately as possible” (Ellis 2003:352) is a text reconstruction task.

​

• Examples of these texts are what Wajnryb (1990, cited in Ellis 2003:341) calls dictoglosses. Students hear these twice, and then repeat them.

​

​

17

Text Reconstruction Task

​

• The teacher constructs a text containing possessive structures with varied determiner types (possessive, definite, indefinite).
• Fernando está muy enfermo. Le duelen la cabeza y el cuello. Tiene también la nariz congestionada. Va al médico. En el consultorio, su doctor lo examina. Él le dice a Fernando que abra la boca y saque la lengua. Ve que la garganta de Fernando está muy inflamada. Fernando tiene una infección. Debe tomar unas pastillas. Las recoge y vuelve a su casa. Pasa los dos días siguientes en su cama.

​

​

• Students listen to it twice, and then retell it with a classmate.
• Hay un chico que se llama Fernando. Está muy enfermo y le duele la cabeza. Le duele el cuello también. Tiene que visitar a su médico. El médico le dice: “¡Abra la boca! ¡Saque la lengua!” Fernando tiene una infección. Regresa a su casa y duerme mucho en su cama.

18

Reasoning-Gap Task

• Reasoning-gap tasks, which Prabhu (1987) notes are different from information- or opinion-gap tasks, “require…participants to engage in reasoning, e.g., synthesizing the information provided and deducing new facts, in order to perform [them] successfully.” (Ellis 2003:349).

​

• The teacher creates a “whodunit” exercise that contains various forms of possessive structures. Students collaborate to solve the mystery.

​

• ¿Quién le robó el almuerzo a David? Usen estas oraciones como pista.
• Cristóbal estaba en su clase.
• A Aleja le duele el estómago.
• María está en su casa.
• …

​

• Possible responses:
• No fue María porque estaba en su casa.
• Creo que fue Aleja porque le duele el estómago.

​

​

​

19

Target Task

• Ellis (2003:351) defines target tasks as those activities “found in the real world, e.g., making a theatre booking or filling out a cheque.”

​

• Students practice using possessive sentences by completing a medical intake form for an invented malady.

​

• They role-play with another classmate to go over the form in a doctor-patient type dialogue.

Blanco & Donley (2016)

20

Advanced Consciousness-Raising Task

• Consciousness-raising tasks “engage…learners in thinking and communicating about language. Thus, a language point becomes the topic that is talked about” (Ellis 2003:341).

​

• Students browse a “mini corpus” chosen by the teacher and look for possessive sentences. They note which determiners have been used and in which contexts (with clothes, body parts, family terms, other nouns) (see Cardona 2016 for examples with se).

​

• Selections from Myles, et al.’s (2006-2008)

SPLLOC I could be of use.

​

21

Concluding Thoughts and Future Directions

• Although the use of definite determiners in possessive contexts receives some attention in L2 Spanish textbooks (e.g., in contexts of reflexive clitics), the variety of contexts in which definite determiners occur needs to be considered in L2 instructional materials.

​

• Next steps:
• Create an Internet corpus of informal L2 and HL writings available to language teachers.

​

• Provide task-based teaching resources to language instructors on the same site: https://tinyurl.com/posstblt.

​

22

Selected References

• Blanco, J. A., & Donley, P. R. (2016). Activities manual for Vistas: Introducción a la lengua española. Vista Higher Learning.
• Brandl, K. (2008). Communicative Language Teaching in Action: Putting Principles to Work. Pearson Prentice Hall.
• Cardona, M. D. (2016). ”La enseñanza de las construcciones pasivas e impersonales con se en E/LE. ¿Cuántas distinciones son necesarias?” Didáctica. Lengua y Literatura 27: 73-96.
• Conti, C. (2011). “Possessive datives revisited: Another view of external possession in Spanish.” Studia Linguistica: A Journal of General Linguistics 65, 2: 170-197.
• Haspelmath, M. (1999). “External possession in a European areal perspective.” In Barshi, I., & Payne, D. (eds.), External Possession, 109-135. Benjamins.
• Kliffer, M. D. (1994). “Gradience, determiners and null possessors: Revisiting French inalienable syntax.” LINGUISTICA atlantica 16: 59-84.
• Kockelman, P. (2009). “Inalienable possession as a grammatical category and discourse pattern.”
• Lemos, M. (2021). “A task-based needs analysis of Portuguese for business at the college level.” Atlanta, GA: AATSP conference.
• MacWhinney, B. (2000). The CHILDES Project: Tools for analyzing talk. Third Edition. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
• Mendes, F. (2017). “Acquisition of inalienable possessive structures: the case of body part names in American English and Brazilian Portuguese.” Revista de Estudos da Linguagem, Belo Horizonte 25, 3:1567-1611.
• Mitchell, R., Myles, F., Domínguez, L., Marsden, E., Arche, M. J., & Boardman, T. (2006-2008). Spanisj Learner Language Oral Corpora I. http://www.splloc.soton.ac.uk/index.html.
• Pérez-Leroux, A. T., O’rourke, E., Lord, G., & Centero-Cortes, B. (2002). “Inalienable possession in L2 Spanish.” In Pérez-Leroux, A. T., & Muñoz Liceras, J. (eds.), The Acquisition of Spanish Morphosyntax, 179-208.
• Richards, J. C., & Rodgers, T. S . (2014). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. 3rd ed. Cambridge University Press.
• Rothman, J., & Slabakova, R. (2011). “The mind-context divide: On acquisition at the linguistic interfaces.” Lingua 121: 568-576.
• Samples, C. E. (2022). “Possessive determiner phrases in Spanish: The intersection of number and meaning.” San Juan, PR: AATSP conference.
• Solano-Escobar, L. (2021). The Interpretation and Production of Inalienable Possession in L2 and Heritage Spanish. [Unpublished MA thesis]. Purdue University.
• Vergnaud, J.-R., & Zubizarreta, M. L. 1992. “The definite determiner and the inalienable constructions in French and in English.” Linguistic Inquiry 23, 4: 595-652.

​

​

​

​

23

¡Mil gracias!

Questions? caitlin.samples@uga.edu