Ana Teresa Perez-Leroux
Biographic Data
| ID | 733076 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ana Teresa Perez-Leroux |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ana Teresa |
| FAMILY NAME | Perez-Leroux |
| SIGNATURE | PEREZ-LEROUX A T |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Toronto |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4663-3383 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 33 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 51 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 32 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1992 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Disentangling bilingualism and developmental language disorder in the acquisition of Spanish articles and clitics: Quantitative and qualitative contributions
This study explored the acquisition of Spanish nominal morphology in 116 children aged 4;0 to 6;11, grouped according to language ability (developmental language disorder [DLD] and typical development [TD]) and bilingualism (Spanish–English bilingual and Spanish monolingual). Monolinguals produced more target-like articles and direct object clitics than bilinguals, as did children with TD compared to peers with DLD. Bilinguals with TD produced mo…
On the L1 acquisition of recursive no in Japanese
This article investigates the emergence of recursive DPs in child language. In certain languages, DP modification can be achieved via diverse structures and any number of different embedding markers (prepositions, particles, case-marker, etc.), each having to be learned; this diversity may impact the L1 development of recursive DP modification. Japanese, in contrast, relies on two uniform unrestricted strategies: the adnominal particle の ( no ) o…
The Phonetic and Morphosyntactic Dimensions of Grammatical Gender in Spanish Heritage Language Acquisition
Previous studies disagree as to whether heritage bilinguals demonstrate loss of knowledge of Spanish grammatical gender. As phonetic variability is known to affect the acquisition of certain grammatical markers, we examine whether bilinguals’ gender difficulties relate to bilingual contact-induced phonetic variability, namely, reduction in the inventory of word-final unstressed vowels. We analyzed narratives from children in the United States (n …
Children’s comprehension of NP embedding
How do children learn to interpret structurally complex noun phrases? NPs embedded inside other NPs are not accessible to predication, so that in a sentence with a subject NP containing a PP modifier such as The cup on the table is green or The dog with the bone is blue, the adjectival predicate has scope over the highest but not the embedded nominal referent (Arsenijevic & Hinzen 2012). We used a coloring task to examine children’s comprehension…
Structural diversity does not affect the acquisition of recursion: The case of possession in German
Languages vary according to which morphosyntactic forms of embedding are present in the grammar as well as to which of these forms allow recursive embedding. The present study examines how German-speaking children discover which forms of embedding are recursive. In German, possessive modifiers are expressed by several structural options (i.e., genitive case, possessive -s, relative clauses, and von-prepositional phrases, placed to the left or the…
Can prosody encode recursive embedding? Children's realizations of complex NPs in Japanese
Recursive NPs are difficult to produce and late to emerge. We compare prosodic and syntactic abilities in Japanese-speaking five- and six-year-olds (n = 28) and adults (n = 10). It is reported that syntactic structure in Japanese is prosodically marked via downstep and metrical boost. Results of an elicited imitation task suggested that children had acquired the lexical prosody (contrast between accented and unaccented words), a pre-requisite for…
Old Grammars New (?) Scope: Adjective Placement in Native and Non-Native Spanish
Prior studies have examined the association between modifying adjective placement and interpretation in second language (L2) Spanish. These studies show evidence of convergence with native speaker's intuitions, which is interpreted as restructuring of the underlying grammar. Two issues deserve further study: (i) there are debates on the nature of native speaker's interpretations; (ii) previous results could be explained by a combination of explic…
Restrictions on ordering of adjectives in Spanish
Sequences of multiple modifying adjectives are subject to poorly understood lexical ordering restrictions. There are certain commonalities to these restrictions across languages, as well as substantive language variation. Ordering restrictions in Spanish are still under empirical debate, with some proposing strict ordering for direct modifier adjectives; others proposing broad ordering restrictions based on the contrast between intersective and n…
Leaving Obligations Behind: Epistemic Incrementation in Preschool English
Does language development drive language change? A common account of language change attributes the regularity of certain patterns to children’s learning biases. The present study examines these predictions for change-in-progress in the use of must in Toronto English. Historically, modal verbs like must start with root (deontic) meanings, eventually developing epistemic (probability) meanings in addition. Epistemic uses increase over successive g…
The perception and interpretation of sentence types by L1 Spanish–L2 English speakers
While the L2 perception of segmentals has been investigated, our knowledge of the L2 perception of intonation is limited. Moreover, it is unclear how context affects L1 transfer. This study investigates the perception of English sentence types by adult L1 Spanish speakers across tasks varying in contextual information. In Task 1, participants heard low-pass filtered utterances and identified them as statements, questions or exclamations. Task 2 w…
A Phonetic Account of Spanish-English Bilinguals' Divergence with Agreement
Does bilingual language influence in the domain of phonetics impact the morphosyntactic domain? Spanish gender is encoded by word-final, unstressed vowels (/a e o/), which may diphthongize in word-boundary vowel sequences. English neutralizes unstressed final vowels and separates across-word vocalic sequences. The realization of gender vowels as schwa, due to cross-linguistic influence, may remain undetected if not directly analyzed. To explore t…
On Recursive Modification in Child L1 French
This paper investigates nominal recursive modification (RM) in the L1 acquisition of French. Although recursion is considered the fundamental property of human languages, recursive self-embedding is found to be difficult for children in a variety of languages and constructions. Despite these challenges, the acquisition of RM proves to be resilient; acquirable even under severely degraded input conditions. From a minimalist perspective on the oper…
The acquisition of recursive modification in NPs
Despite sensitivity to the contextual demands of modification, children struggle with the production of complex NPs. What syntactic or semantic properties of NP embedding specifically introduce complexity? We compare production of definite descriptions with two modifiers that contrast in the attachment of the second modifier: sequential vs. recursive modification. Children (n = 71) produced overall fewer targets than adults (n = 13), but both gro…
Two holes in the plan
Preview this article: Two holes in the plan, Page 1 of 1 /docserver/preview/fulltext/lab.5.4.12per-1.gif
News, somewhat exaggerated: Commentary on Ambridge, Pine, and Lieven
Ambridge, Pine, and Lieven (AP&L) claim that the knowledge attributed to children by the proponents of UG does not account for language acquisition, bringing evidence from several domains. In this response, we take issue with their claims with respect to two domains. In the case of categories, where distributional learning plays an important role, we argue that AP&L fail to recognize recent analyses showing that abstract representations yield bet…
How children learn to detect and interpret agreement morphology: A crosslinguistic perspective
On the development of null implicit objects in L1 English
This article explores a defining property of implicit null object constructions, and how this property emerges during the L1 acquisition process. Implicit objects are non-referential and characterized by a strong semantic association between a null N in object position and the contents of the verb root. By means of an elicited production study, we examine children’s sensitivity to this association in terms of the typicality of implicit direct obj…
What I don’t understand about interfaces
Jij doe wat girafe: Wh -movement and inversion in Dutch-French bilingual children
In this study we consider the role of cross-linguistic influence in the domain of wh -movement and subject-verb inversion in children simultaneously acquiring Dutch and French, two typologically different languages. Wh -questions were elicited in Dutch by means of an elicited production task. The participants consisted of 5- and 7-year-old Dutch-French bilingual children, and two control groups of monolingual Dutch children and adults (N = 46). T…
Topicalization and object omission in child language
This article offers a closer look at the relationship between object omission in child language and the acquisition of object clitics. The study isolates a context in French where the use of an object clitic is not only possible, or optimal, but mostly obligatory in the adult grammar, namely the clitic left-dislocation context. In addition, the article contrasts French with English, a language that requires a null element in a similar context, to…
Language typology and the acquisition of bare noun/DP contrasts
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
In the wrong mood at the right time: Children’s acquisition of the Spanish subjunctive in temporal clauses
This study investigates the complexity of the mapping task in children’s acquisition of the Spanish subjunctive in temporal clauses. We consider that children’s difficulty with this task arises from the interaction between mood and other elements determining the evaluation of the temporal clause, such as semantic factors, tense, and cognition. Forty monolingual Spanish-speaking children first completed a cognitive assessment test, evaluating fals…
Introduction to the special issue on Hispanic linguistics in Canada
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button
Individual differences and language interdependence: A study of sequential bilingual development in Spanish–English preschool children
The purpose of the current study is to examine language influence in sequential bilinguals. Specifically, this study evaluates whether performance in a first language predicts success in the acquisition of a second language nine months after exposure to the second language begins. Forty-nine Spanish-speaking children attending English-only pre-kindergarten classrooms participated in the study. Children were assessed in Spanish at the beginning of…
Null objects in child language: Syntax and the lexicon
Null anaphora in Spanish second language acquisition: Probabilistic versus generative approaches
The acquisition of Spanish null pronouns is an optimal domain for comparing the predictions of generativist vs. probabilistic approaches to language acquisition. This paper presents two studies on the acquisition of null subjects by English adult learners of Spanish as a second language. The first investigates a low frequency construction in which the antecedent of the pronoun is a quantifier, and the distribution is regulated by a principle of U…
Null objects in child language: Syntax and the lexicon
The acquisition of mood selection in Spanish relative clauses
Although children acquire Spanish subjunctive morphology early in the process of language acquisition, they only master mood selection in a staged process that lasts for several years. This paper examines the possibility that the acquisition of subjunctive mood selection in particular syntactic contexts is constrained by cognitive development in the area of representational theory of mind. Acquisition of the epistemic aspects of the semantics of …
Linguistic Diversity and Inclusion in the Foreign Language Classroom
Discussions about inclusion in the foreign language classroom should address the issues of linguistic diversity and dialectal sensitivity. Foreign language departments are particularly vulnerable to linguistic conflict, but they can address such conflicts proactively. We argue that a linguistically diverse pool of teachers can work together more effectively by using an additive rather than a subtractive view of linguistic diversity. We discuss mo…
Scope and the structure of bare nominals: Evidence From Child Language
The special semantic characteristics of bare nominals (nonspecificity and lack of scopal interactions) are best explained in terms of an approach that views these not as full DPs, but as minimal nominal projections containing an internal pro argument. The evidence from child language suggests that such aspects of the interpretation of bare nominals are readily accessible in children's grammar. Thirty-six English-speaking children participated in …
A Phonetic Account of Spanish-English Bilinguals' Divergence with Agreement
Does bilingual language influence in the domain of phonetics impact the morphosyntactic domain? Spanish gender is encoded by word-final, unstressed vowels (/a e o/), which may diphthongize in word-boundary vowel sequences. English neutralizes unstressed final vowels and separates across-word vocalic sequences. The realization of gender vowels as schwa, due to cross-linguistic influence, may remain undetected if not directly analyzed. To explore t…
The acquisition of recursive modification in NPs
Despite sensitivity to the contextual demands of modification, children struggle with the production of complex NPs. What syntactic or semantic properties of NP embedding specifically introduce complexity? We compare production of definite descriptions with two modifiers that contrast in the attachment of the second modifier: sequential vs. recursive modification. Children (n = 71) produced overall fewer targets than adults (n = 13), but both gro…
José A. Padilla, On the definition of binding domains in Spanish. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1990. Pp. xvii + 163
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The acquisition of mood selection in Spanish relative clauses
Although children acquire Spanish subjunctive morphology early in the process of language acquisition, they only master mood selection in a staged process that lasts for several years. This paper examines the possibility that the acquisition of subjunctive mood selection in particular syntactic contexts is constrained by cognitive development in the area of representational theory of mind. Acquisition of the epistemic aspects of the semantics of …
The role of tense and aspect in the acquisition of factivity: Children's interpretation of factive complements in English, German and Spanish
Previous studies on the acquisition of factivity have shown partial understanding of factive complements, as well as problems with their syntactic structure. These studies fail to consider language variation and the possible role of tense and aspect as morphological markers of factivity. An experiment tested comprehension of factive complements in English, German and Spanish (67 children aged 3 to 6 years). A follow-up study (40 English children …
Null anaphora in Spanish second language acquisition: Probabilistic versus generative approaches
The acquisition of Spanish null pronouns is an optimal domain for comparing the predictions of generativist vs. probabilistic approaches to language acquisition. This paper presents two studies on the acquisition of null subjects by English adult learners of Spanish as a second language. The first investigates a low frequency construction in which the antecedent of the pronoun is a quantifier, and the distribution is regulated by a principle of U…
Contemporary Perspectives on the Acquisition of Spanish
Scope and the structure of bare nominals: Evidence From Child Language
The special semantic characteristics of bare nominals (nonspecificity and lack of scopal interactions) are best explained in terms of an approach that views these not as full DPs, but as minimal nominal projections containing an internal pro argument. The evidence from child language suggests that such aspects of the interpretation of bare nominals are readily accessible in children's grammar. Thirty-six English-speaking children participated in …
Linguistic Diversity and Inclusion in the Foreign Language Classroom
Discussions about inclusion in the foreign language classroom should address the issues of linguistic diversity and dialectal sensitivity. Foreign language departments are particularly vulnerable to linguistic conflict, but they can address such conflicts proactively. We argue that a linguistically diverse pool of teachers can work together more effectively by using an additive rather than a subtractive view of linguistic diversity. We discuss mo…
Romance Linguistics: Theory and AcquisitionSelected papers from the 32nd Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL), Toronto, April 2002
This volume contains a selection of refereed and revised papers, originally presented at the 32nd Linguistics Symposium on Romance Languages, dealing with linguistic theory as applied to the Romance languages, and on empirical studies on the acquisition of Romance, with studies on Romanian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Romansch and Latin. The theoretical section contains contributions concentrating on specific properties of Romance at th…
Null objects in child language: Syntax and the lexicon
Individual differences and language interdependence: A study of sequential bilingual development in Spanish–English preschool children
The purpose of the current study is to examine language influence in sequential bilinguals. Specifically, this study evaluates whether performance in a first language predicts success in the acquisition of a second language nine months after exposure to the second language begins. Forty-nine Spanish-speaking children attending English-only pre-kindergarten classrooms participated in the study. Children were assessed in Spanish at the beginning of…
In the wrong mood at the right time: Children’s acquisition of the Spanish subjunctive in temporal clauses
This study investigates the complexity of the mapping task in children’s acquisition of the Spanish subjunctive in temporal clauses. We consider that children’s difficulty with this task arises from the interaction between mood and other elements determining the evaluation of the temporal clause, such as semantic factors, tense, and cognition. Forty monolingual Spanish-speaking children first completed a cognitive assessment test, evaluating fals…
Introduction to the special issue on Hispanic linguistics in Canada
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button
What I don’t understand about interfaces
Jij doe wat girafe: Wh -movement and inversion in Dutch-French bilingual children
In this study we consider the role of cross-linguistic influence in the domain of wh -movement and subject-verb inversion in children simultaneously acquiring Dutch and French, two typologically different languages. Wh -questions were elicited in Dutch by means of an elicited production task. The participants consisted of 5- and 7-year-old Dutch-French bilingual children, and two control groups of monolingual Dutch children and adults (N = 46). T…
Topicalization and object omission in child language
This article offers a closer look at the relationship between object omission in child language and the acquisition of object clitics. The study isolates a context in French where the use of an object clitic is not only possible, or optimal, but mostly obligatory in the adult grammar, namely the clitic left-dislocation context. In addition, the article contrasts French with English, a language that requires a null element in a similar context, to…
Language typology and the acquisition of bare noun/DP contrasts
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
On the development of null implicit objects in L1 English
This article explores a defining property of implicit null object constructions, and how this property emerges during the L1 acquisition process. Implicit objects are non-referential and characterized by a strong semantic association between a null N in object position and the contents of the verb root. By means of an elicited production study, we examine children’s sensitivity to this association in terms of the typicality of implicit direct obj…
News, somewhat exaggerated: Commentary on Ambridge, Pine, and Lieven
Ambridge, Pine, and Lieven (AP&L) claim that the knowledge attributed to children by the proponents of UG does not account for language acquisition, bringing evidence from several domains. In this response, we take issue with their claims with respect to two domains. In the case of categories, where distributional learning plays an important role, we argue that AP&L fail to recognize recent analyses showing that abstract representations yield bet…
How children learn to detect and interpret agreement morphology: A crosslinguistic perspective
Two holes in the plan
Preview this article: Two holes in the plan, Page 1 of 1 /docserver/preview/fulltext/lab.5.4.12per-1.gif
On Recursive Modification in Child L1 French
This paper investigates nominal recursive modification (RM) in the L1 acquisition of French. Although recursion is considered the fundamental property of human languages, recursive self-embedding is found to be difficult for children in a variety of languages and constructions. Despite these challenges, the acquisition of RM proves to be resilient; acquirable even under severely degraded input conditions. From a minimalist perspective on the oper…
The acquisition of recursive modification in NPs
Despite sensitivity to the contextual demands of modification, children struggle with the production of complex NPs. What syntactic or semantic properties of NP embedding specifically introduce complexity? We compare production of definite descriptions with two modifiers that contrast in the attachment of the second modifier: sequential vs. recursive modification. Children (n = 71) produced overall fewer targets than adults (n = 13), but both gro…
Restrictions on ordering of adjectives in Spanish
Sequences of multiple modifying adjectives are subject to poorly understood lexical ordering restrictions. There are certain commonalities to these restrictions across languages, as well as substantive language variation. Ordering restrictions in Spanish are still under empirical debate, with some proposing strict ordering for direct modifier adjectives; others proposing broad ordering restrictions based on the contrast between intersective and n…
Leaving Obligations Behind: Epistemic Incrementation in Preschool English
Does language development drive language change? A common account of language change attributes the regularity of certain patterns to children’s learning biases. The present study examines these predictions for change-in-progress in the use of must in Toronto English. Historically, modal verbs like must start with root (deontic) meanings, eventually developing epistemic (probability) meanings in addition. Epistemic uses increase over successive g…
The perception and interpretation of sentence types by L1 Spanish–L2 English speakers
While the L2 perception of segmentals has been investigated, our knowledge of the L2 perception of intonation is limited. Moreover, it is unclear how context affects L1 transfer. This study investigates the perception of English sentence types by adult L1 Spanish speakers across tasks varying in contextual information. In Task 1, participants heard low-pass filtered utterances and identified them as statements, questions or exclamations. Task 2 w…
Linguistics (27 works) · Psychology (24 works) · Computer Science (23 works) · Language Development and Disorders (22 works) · Philosophy (15 works) · Artificial Intelligence (13 works) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (13 works) · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism (12 works) · Reading and Literacy Development (11 works) · Mathematics (10 works)