BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//events.la.psu.edu//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20201101T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=11;BYDAY=1SU END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20200308T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=2SU END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:17007-a95b17aa3d3158069a33d584d785d942@events.la.psu.edu DTSTAMP:20260410T205935Z DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230324T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230324T103000 SUMMARY:PSUxLing DESCRIPTION:PSUxLing Presentations\n\nFriday\, March 24\, 9:00–10:30 a.m . EST\, 127 Moore Building and virtually via Zoom\n\n“Can Child Language Acquisition Help Us Understand Adult Heritage Grammars and Language Evo lution?"\n\nPablo Requena\, Assistant Professor in the Department of Mod ern Languages and Literatures at The University of Texas at San Antonio\ n\nThis presentation will illustrate ways in which language acquisition could help us answer tough questions about adult grammars. Pablo Requena will report on two studies in progress about child acquisition of the S panish Subjunctive mood. Among many other uses\, the Subjunctive mood ca n convey that an action is desired\, or that an event to which the speak er reacts is presupposed\, for example. It takes children a long time to acquire the different uses of the Subjunctive mood\, which means that s ome uses are mastered before the beginning of formal education\, while m ore complex uses are mastered by the end of the elementary school years. This observation is consequential because not all Spanish-speaking chil dren use Spanish at school (as is the case with many child heritage spea kers of Spanish in the U.S.)\, but also because formal education has tra ditionally exerted high pressure in favor of some linguistic forms over others. The timing of acquisition of particular Subjunctive uses coupled with information about the sociolinguistic and sociohistorical context can shed light on why certain uses are more vulnerable than others and w hy adult grammars are the way they are. In Study 1\, Pablo will report o n how some child heritage speakers of Spanish living in Texas encounter difficulty using the Subjunctive in complex structures typically mastere d at a time when their exposure to the Spanish is reduced as a result of receiving formal education in English. The study shows\, however\, that some children do succeed in learning Subjunctive even in these complex contexts\, which highlights the importance of each individual’s experien ce with language. In Study 2\, Pablo will report on how the timing of ac quisition of two uses of the Spanish Subjunctive coupled with sociohisto rical circumstances could explain the semantic split between voseo and t uteo 2sg Subjunctive forms (for deontic vs. epistemic contexts\, respect ively) in the evolution of Rioplatense Spanish. It is proposed that with the spread of free and mandatory education in Argentina and Uruguay\, b etween 1877-1882\, the prescriptive forces of schooling could have contr ibuted to stopping the advance of voseo forms towards the late-acquired epistemic Subjunctive contexts. The presentation ends encouraging furthe r interaction between child language acquisition and other sub-fields of linguistic research.\n\n \;\n\n“Lleísmo Variation in Misiones\, Arg entina?"\n\nColleen Balukas\, Assistant Professor in the Department of R omance Languages and Linguistics at the University at Buffalo\n\nThis pr esentation explores the realization of the palatal consonants /ʎ/and /j/ by Spanish-Portuguese bilingual speakers in Misiones Province\, Argenti na. In the majority of Spanish-speaking regions\, the two sounds have ei ther merged or are in the process of merging into a single phonemic cate gory. The phenomenon\, referred to as yeísmo\, results in a lack of dist inction between words like malla and maya. However\, some areas of the S panish-speaking world maintain the distinction (lleísmo)\, including – b y most accounts – in the Misiones Province of northeastern Argentina.\n\ nUsing naturalistic language data from a corpus of picture descriptions and sociolinguistic interviews conducted with 41 speakers\, the followin g questions are asked: To what extent do Misionero Spanish-Portuguese bi linguals continue to maintain lleísmo-type distinctions? What are the pa tterns of phonetic variability that emerge for each phoneme? And to what extent do speakers assign social meaning to lleísmo and yeísmo?\n\nPrel iminary analysis suggests that most speakers in the corpus do indeed mai ntain distinct pronunciations of /ʎ/ and /j/\, but that the precise phon etic realization of the two phonemes is somewhat variable across speaker s. Further\, metalinguistic comments made on topics like the formal educ ation system in the province and comparisons with prestige varieties (li ke Ríoplatense Spanish) reveal that lleísmo carries value as a regionall y distinctive feature that rises to the level of conscious awareness for speakers.\n\nFor more details: https://events.la.psu.edu/event/psuxling / X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

PSUxLing Presentations
Fr iday, March 24, 9:00–10:30 a.m. EST, 127 Moore Building and virtually vi a Zoom

“Can Child Language Acquisition Help Us Unders tand Adult Heritage Grammars and Language Evolution?"

Pablo Requena, Assistant Professor in the Department of Modern Lang uages and Literatures at The University of Texas at San Antonio

This presentation will illustrate ways in which language acquisit ion could help us answer tough questions about adult grammars. Pablo Req uena will report on two studies in progress about child acquisition of t he Spanish Subjunctive mood. Among many other uses, the Subjunctive mood can convey that an action is desired, or that an event to which the spe aker reacts is presupposed, for example. It takes children a long time t o acquire the different uses of the Subjunctive mood, which means that s ome uses are mastered before the beginning of formal education, while mo re complex uses are mastered by the end of the elementary school years. This observation is consequential because not all Spanish-speaking child ren use Spanish at school (as is the case with many child heritage speak ers of Spanish in the U.S.), but also because formal education has tradi tionally exerted high pressure in favor of some linguistic forms over ot hers. The timing of acquisition of particular Subjunctive uses coupled w ith information about the sociolinguistic and sociohistorical context ca n shed light on why certain uses are more vulnerable than others and why adult grammars are the way they are. In Study 1, Pablo will report on h ow some child heritage speakers of Spanish living in Texas encounter dif ficulty using the Subjunctive in complex structures typically mastered a t a time when their exposure to the Spanish is reduced as a result of re ceiving formal education in English. The study shows, however, that some children do succeed in learning Subjunctive even in these complex conte xts, which highlights the importance of each individual’s experience wit h language. In Study 2, Pablo will report on how the timing of acquisiti on of two uses of the Spanish Subjunctive coupled with sociohistorical c ircumstances could explain the semantic split between voseo and tuteo 2s g Subjunctive forms (for deontic vs. epistemic contexts, respectively) i n the evolution of Rioplatense Spanish. It is proposed that with the spr ead of free and mandatory education in Argentina and Uruguay, between 18 77-1882, the prescriptive forces of schooling could have contributed to stopping the advance of voseo forms towards the late-acquired epistemic Subjunctive contexts. The presentation ends encouraging further interact ion between child language acquisition and other sub-fields of linguisti c research.

 

“Lleísmo Variation in Misiones, A rgentina?"

Colleen Balukas, Assistant Professor i n the Department of Romance Languages and Linguistics at the University at Buffalo

This presentation explores the realization of the palatal consonants /ʎ/and /j/ by Spanish-Portuguese bilingual speake rs in Misiones Province, Argentina. In the majority of Spanish-speaking regions, the two sounds have either merged or are in the process of merg ing into a single phonemic category. The phenomenon, referred to as yeís mo, results in a lack of distinction between words like malla and maya. However, some areas of the Spanish-speaking world maintain the distincti on (lleísmo), including – by most accounts – in the Misiones Province of northeastern Argentina.

Using naturalistic language data from a c orpus of picture descriptions and sociolinguistic interviews conducted w ith 41 speakers, the following questions are asked: To what extent do Mi sionero Spanish-Portuguese bilinguals continue to maintain lleísmo-type distinctions? What are the patterns of phonetic variability that emerge for each phoneme? And to what extent do speakers assign social meaning t o lleísmo and yeísmo?

Preliminary analysis suggests that most spea kers in the corpus do indeed maintain distinct pronunciations of /ʎ/ and /j/, but that the precise phonetic realization of the two phonemes is s omewhat variable across speakers. Further, metalinguistic comments made on topics like the formal education system in the province and compariso ns with prestige varieties (like Ríoplatense Spanish) reveal that lleísm o carries value as a regionally distinctive feature that rises to the le vel of conscious awareness for speakers.

For more details: https://events.la.psu.edu/e vent/psuxling/

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