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Lexical and morphological aspects of gender and their effect on the acquisition of gender agreement in second language learners

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TitleInfo
Title
Lexical and morphological aspects of gender and their effect on the acquisition of gender agreement in second language learners
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Kirova
NamePart (type = given)
Alena
NamePart (type = date)
1981-
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Alena Kirova
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author
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Sánchez
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Liliana
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Liliana Sánchez
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Advisory Committee
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chair
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NamePart (type = family)
Camacho
NamePart (type = given)
José
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José Camacho
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Advisory Committee
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internal member
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Austin
NamePart (type = given)
Jennifer
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Jennifer Austin
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Advisory Committee
Role
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internal member
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Grimshaw
NamePart (type = given)
Jane
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Jane Grimshaw
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Advisory Committee
Role
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outside member
Name (type = corporate)
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Rutgers University
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
degree grantor
Name (type = corporate)
NamePart
Graduate School - New Brunswick
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RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
school
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Text
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theses
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DateCreated (encoding = w3cdtf); (qualifier = exact)
2016
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2016-01
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2016
Place
PlaceTerm (type = code)
xx
Language
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eng
Abstract (type = abstract)
The main purpose of this dissertation is to investigate whether L2 learners can acquire and perform native-like on gender agreement. Gender has been studied by SLA researchers in order to address the central question in generative SLA – acquirability of syntactic features in the L2. With respect to this question, some studies have shown that L2 learners can exhibit native-like gender agreement, which has been considered as evidence in favor of acquirability of syntactic features, while other studies seem to indicate that gender agreement is permanently impaired in the L2, which has been proposed as evidence against acquirability of syntactic features. In this dissertation, I propose that gender is not an ideal candidate to address this question, because gender is not a purely syntactic feature but rather a complex lexical-morphological and syntactic feature whose acquisition hinges upon a number of factors, and not exclusively on the availability of syntactic features. Following the Separation Hypothesis (Beard, 1995; Lardiere, 2000) and the Missing Surface Inflection Hypothesis (Haznedar & Schwartz, 1997; Prévost & White, 1999), I make a distinction between abstract syntactic features and their concrete lexical-morphological manifestation in a given language, and propose that non-native like performance on the latter may not be indicative of a lack of the former in the interlanguage grammars. Furthermore, I propose that having a first language with gender marking does not necessarily facilitate the acquisition of morphological gender in the L2. In order to test these proposals, I conducted a study with L1 English-L2 Spanish learners, L1 Russian-L2 Spanish learners and native speakers of Spanish using gender comprehension tasks (a grammaticality judgment task and a picture-matching task). The findings show that both high proficiency L1 English and L1 Russian learners of Spanish can behave native-like on gender agreement, and that low proficiency learners are affected by lexical and morphological characteristics of Spanish gender. Thus, syntactic features are in fact acquirable in the L2 irrespective of whether the L1 has gender, but the lexical-morphological component of gender has to be acquired as well in order for the surface gender agreement to appear native-like in a given language.
Subject (authority = RUETD)
Topic
Spanish
RelatedItem (type = host)
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Title
Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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ETD
Identifier
ETD_7022
PhysicalDescription
Form (authority = gmd)
electronic resource
InternetMediaType
application/pdf
InternetMediaType
text/xml
Extent
1 online resource (vi, 175 p. : ill.)
Note (type = degree)
Ph.D.
Note (type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Second language acquisition
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Language and languages--Study and teaching
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Spanish language--Gender
Note (type = statement of responsibility)
by Alena Kirova
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Graduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = local)
rucore19991600001
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NjNbRU
Identifier (type = doi)
doi:10.7282/T3154K31
Genre (authority = ExL-Esploro)
ETD doctoral
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Rights

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The author owns the copyright to this work.
RightsHolder (type = personal)
Name
FamilyName
Kirova
GivenName
Alena
Role
Copyright Holder
RightsEvent
Type
Permission or license
DateTime (encoding = w3cdtf); (qualifier = exact); (point = start)
2016-01-13 16:30:31
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Name
Alena Kirova
Role
Copyright holder
Affiliation
Rutgers University. Graduate School - New Brunswick
AssociatedObject
Type
License
Name
Author Agreement License
Detail
I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.
RightsEvent
DateTime (encoding = w3cdtf); (qualifier = exact); (point = start)
2016-01-31
DateTime (encoding = w3cdtf); (qualifier = exact); (point = end)
2016-08-01
Type
Embargo
Detail
Access to this PDF has been restricted at the author's request. It will be publicly available after August 1st, 2016.
Copyright
Status
Copyright protected
Availability
Status
Open
Reason
Permission or license
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windows xp
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