Alejandro Cuza
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 995377 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Alejandro Cuza |
| PRENOMES | Alejandro |
| SOBRENOME | Cuza |
| ASSINATURA | CUZA A |
| AFILIAÇÕES | Purdue University West Lafayette |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0922-9728 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 28 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 33 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 28 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2010 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 3 |
Nadando es mi deporte favorito
This study examines the elicited production of Spanish infinitives versus gerunds among Spanish/English bilingual children and adolescents in the United States. We focus on three contexts: infinitives in subject position, infinitives with the phrasal verb parar de (“to stop doing something”), and infinitives with the prepositional verb parar a (“to stop to do something”). Results showed that children and adolescents produced fewer infinitives tha…
Genericity expression in child heritage Spanish
The current study investigates the oral production of plural noun phrases (NPs) in subject position in Spanish and English among forty child heritage speakers of Spanish who were raised in the United States. Their results were compared with twenty-four monolingual children of similar ages from Mexico. We elicited determiner use in generic and specific contexts in Spanish and English. Results showed a high level of determiner omission with generic…
Phrasal verb production in child heritage speakers of English residing in Mexico
Aims: We investigated the extent to which child heritage speakers of English in contact with Spanish in Mexico accurately produce phrasal verbs, and if not, whether their difficulties are modulated by chronological age, language dominance, and experience. Methods: We implemented an elicited production task to elicit the use of idiomatic and transparent phrasal verbs in school-age children using a cross-sectional design. We tested 26 English-herit…
The Acquisition of Inalienable Possession in L2 and Heritage Spanish
The present study examines the production and interpretation of inalienable possession in dative constructions with body-part nouns in Spanish by 25 English-speaking L2 learners and 25 heritage speakers of Spanish born and raised in the United States. Twenty Spanish-dominant speakers served as baseline group. The results showed significant divergencies with inalienable NP s among the L2 learners compared to the heritage speakers and Spanish-domin…
On the production of bare nouns and case marking in Korean heritage speakers in contact with English
Structured variation, language experience, and crosslinguistic influence shape child heritage speakers’ Spanish direct objects
This study investigates child heritage speakers’ Spanish direct objects. A task designed to elicit direct objects was completed in Spanish and English by 40 child heritage speakers of Spanish in the U.S., and in Spanish by 24 monolingual children in Mexico. Both participant groups varied their direct object forms, following the same ranking: clitics>lexical NPs>omission>doubling. Animate referents promoted clitics; inanimate referents promoted le…
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 …
Protracted development in child heritage Spanish
The present study examined the production of inalienable possession with body parts in Spanish among 20 school-age children of Mexican-born parents born and raised in the United States. The results were compared to those of 20 first-generation immigrant parents (main input providers), 27 Spanish-dominant children of similar age, and 12 Spanish monolingual parents living in Mexico. Group and individual results obtained via a question-and-answer ta…
Infinitive vs. Gerund Use and Interpretation in Heritage Spanish
The present study examines the production and interpretation of infinitives among 26 Spanish heritage speakers born and raised in the US and 25 Spanish-dominant speakers from Mexico and Colombia. We tested participants' knowledge of infinitives as subjects of the clause and as objects of a preposition via an elicited production task and a contextualized preference task. The results of both tasks showed less infinitive use by the HSs and overexten…
The Distribution of Manner and Frequency Adverbs in Child Heritage Speakers of Spanish
We investigate the acquisition of adverb placement in Spanish among school-age child heritage speakers of Spanish born and raised in the US by Mexican parents. We examine frequency and manner adverbs with negative and positive polarity and the potential role of cross-linguistic influence, dominance, and experience in the path and rate of development. Fourteen child heritage speakers of Spanish born and raised in the US and twenty-five Spanish mon…
Early exposure and input type in the production of Spanish accusative clitics by Chinese-Spanish bilinguals
The current study examines the production of object clitic pronouns among Chinese/Spanish bilinguals via an elicited narrative task. A total of 11 simultaneous bilinguals, 10 sequential bilinguals from Peru and 21 Chinese-speaking L2 learners from China participated in the study. Results showed an advantage by the simultaneous bilinguals regarding target clitic use. However, no significant differences were observed between the sequential bilingua…
Crosslinguistic Influence in the Discrimination of Korean Stop Contrast by Heritage Speakers and Second Language Learners
The present study examines the extent of crosslinguistic influence from English as a dominant language in the perception of the Korean lenis-aspirated contrast among Korean heritage speakers in the United States (N = 20) and English-speaking learners of Korean as a second language (N = 20), as compared to native speakers of Korean immersed in the first language environment (N = 20), by using an AX discrimination task. In addition, we sought to de…
The production and comprehension of Spanish se use in L2 and heritage Spanish
Previous studies in the acquisition of clitic se in Spanish have focused on the syntactic processes needed to perform detransitivization. However, current approaches on event structure reveal that se encodes aspectual information which is crucial for its acquisition. We examine the use, intuition and interpretation of the aspectual features constraining the clitic se in Spanish with physical change of state verbs and psychological verbs in declar…
Object clitic use and intuition in the Spanish of heritage speakers from Brazil
The present study examines the production and intuition of Spanish clitics in clitic left dislocation (CLLD) structures among 26 Spanish heritage speakers (HSs) born and raised in Brazil. We tested clitic production and intuition in contexts in which Spanish clitics vary as a function of the semantic features of the object that they refer to. Results showed overextension of object clitics into contexts in which null objects were expected. Further…
Copulas ser and estar production in child and adult heritage speakers of Spanish
Structure complexity effects in child heritage Spanish
Aims and objectives: This study examines the acquisition of Differential Object Marking (DOM) in heritage Spanish children born in the USA and the potential role of structure complexity and chronological age. Design: Bilingual children were compared with monolingual children matched by age and long-term immigrants (children’s parents) via an Elicited Production task. We elicited the distribution of personal a in simple and Clitic Left Dislocated …
Does Typological Proximity Really Matter? Evidence from Mandarin and Brazilian Portuguese-Speaking Learners of Spanish
The present study examines the role of typological proximity in the acquisition of Differential Object Marking (DOM) in Spanish among eighteen (n = 18) Mandarin-speaking second language (L2) learners and sixteen (n = 16) Spanish heritage speakers (HSs) with Brazilian Portuguese (BP) as their dominant language. Specifically, we investigate the extent to which language proximity (languages are members of the same family) plays a role in the complet…
The Role of Literary Instruction in the Development of Reading and Writing Skills in Spanish as a Heritage Language during Childhood
The present study examines the role of instruction in the development of reading and writing skills in Spanish as a heritage language during childhood. Sixty-six (n=66) Spanish heritage speakers in K-4th grade participated in an 18-week Spanish intervention. The curriculum included the development of phonological awareness, reading fluency and accuracy as well as vocabulary via cognate instruction. Undergraduate students majoring in Spanish condu…
A pragmatic analysis of L2 Spanish requests
This study examines pragmatic acquisition of requests for English-speaking learners of Spanish. This research expands upon previous work by investigating the acquisition of second language requests during a short-term immersion program (6 weeks) in Madrid, Spain and in three situational contexts: food and drink, general merchandise, and familial. Data were collected using an experimental computerized oral discourse completion task. Requests made …
Second Language Acquisition of Spanish Service Industry Requests in an Immersion Context
The current study examines English-speaking learners of Spanish and their pragmatic development of request forms during a six-week immersion program in Madrid, Spain. Elicited production and intuition data were analyzed, focusing on personal deictic orientation, directness evidenced by clause type, and the use of por favor 'please,' and comparing learners to native speakers of Peninsular Spanish. Results indicate pragmatic acquisition over the sh…
Grammatical gender selection and phrasal word order in child heritage Spanish
The present study examines the development of grammatical gender assignment, agreement, and noun-adjective word order in child heritage Spanish among thirty-two Spanish–English bilingual children born and raised in the United States. A picture-naming task revealed significant overextension of the masculine form and high levels of ungrammatical word order strings. There were no significant differences by age regarding gender concord or noun-adject…
The status of interrogative subject-verb inversion in Spanish-English bilingual children
On the role of experience and age-related effects
The present study examines and compares the extent to which advanced L2 learners of Spanish and Spanish heritage speakers acquire the syntactic and semantic properties that regulate the grammatical representation of double complementizer questions in Spanish, a CP-related structure not present in English. Results from an aural sentence completion task, an acceptability judgment task, and a preference task indicate significant differences between …
Crosslinguistic influence at the syntax proper
This study examines the potential effects of crosslinguistic influence in the acquisition of subject–verb inversion in Spanish matrix and embedded wh-questions among Spanish heritage language learners living in the United States. The results from an acceptability judgment task and a written production task administered to 17 US-born heritage speakers indicate crosslinguistic influence effects. The effects are more evident with embedded interrogat…
The syntax-semantics of bare and definite plural subjects in the L2 Spanish of English natives
This study investigates the extent to which advanced native-English L2 learners of Spanish come to acquire restrictions on bare plural preverbal subjects in L2 Spanish (e.g. gatos “cats” vs. definite plurals such as los gatos “the cats”). It tests L2 knowledge of available semantic readings of bare plurals and definite plurals in Spanish, where [+specific] and [+generic] interpretations are syntactically represented differently from English. Assu…
The status of interrogative subject-verb inversion in Spanish-English bilingual children
On the role of experience and age-related effects
The present study examines and compares the extent to which advanced L2 learners of Spanish and Spanish heritage speakers acquire the syntactic and semantic properties that regulate the grammatical representation of double complementizer questions in Spanish, a CP-related structure not present in English. Results from an aural sentence completion task, an acceptability judgment task, and a preference task indicate significant differences between …
Copulas ser and estar production in child and adult heritage speakers of Spanish
Object clitic use and intuition in the Spanish of heritage speakers from Brazil
The present study examines the production and intuition of Spanish clitics in clitic left dislocation (CLLD) structures among 26 Spanish heritage speakers (HSs) born and raised in Brazil. We tested clitic production and intuition in contexts in which Spanish clitics vary as a function of the semantic features of the object that they refer to. Results showed overextension of object clitics into contexts in which null objects were expected. Further…
On the L1 Attrition of the Spanish Present Tense
This study examines the potential native language (L1) attrition of the ongoing value of the Spanish present tense among long-term Spanish immigrants. Based on the assumption of second-language (L2) transfer and proposals on the permeability of interface-conditioned structures, it is hypothesized that long-term Spanish immigrants will show difficulty with the interpretation and use of the ongoing value of the Spanish simple present due to transfe…
Infinitive vs. Gerund Use and Interpretation in Heritage Spanish
The present study examines the production and interpretation of infinitives among 26 Spanish heritage speakers born and raised in the US and 25 Spanish-dominant speakers from Mexico and Colombia. We tested participants' knowledge of infinitives as subjects of the clause and as objects of a preposition via an elicited production task and a contextualized preference task. The results of both tasks showed less infinitive use by the HSs and overexten…
A pragmatic analysis of L2 Spanish requests
This study examines pragmatic acquisition of requests for English-speaking learners of Spanish. This research expands upon previous work by investigating the acquisition of second language requests during a short-term immersion program (6 weeks) in Madrid, Spain and in three situational contexts: food and drink, general merchandise, and familial. Data were collected using an experimental computerized oral discourse completion task. Requests made …
Crosslinguistic Influence in the Discrimination of Korean Stop Contrast by Heritage Speakers and Second Language Learners
The present study examines the extent of crosslinguistic influence from English as a dominant language in the perception of the Korean lenis-aspirated contrast among Korean heritage speakers in the United States (N = 20) and English-speaking learners of Korean as a second language (N = 20), as compared to native speakers of Korean immersed in the first language environment (N = 20), by using an AX discrimination task. In addition, we sought to de…
The production and comprehension of Spanish se use in L2 and heritage Spanish
Previous studies in the acquisition of clitic se in Spanish have focused on the syntactic processes needed to perform detransitivization. However, current approaches on event structure reveal that se encodes aspectual information which is crucial for its acquisition. We examine the use, intuition and interpretation of the aspectual features constraining the clitic se in Spanish with physical change of state verbs and psychological verbs in declar…
The L2 acquisition of aspectual properties in Spanish
This study examines the L2 acquisition and LI attrition of preterite versus imperfect aspectual distinctions in Spanish among English-speaking L2 learners and long-term Spanish-speaking immigrants. Results from an acceptability judgment task and a truth value judgment task demonstrate significantly lower levels of target performance by both groups when compared to the control participants. The L2 learners outperform the native speakers undergoing…
On the L1 Attrition of the Spanish Present Tense
This study examines the potential native language (L1) attrition of the ongoing value of the Spanish present tense among long-term Spanish immigrants. Based on the assumption of second-language (L2) transfer and proposals on the permeability of interface-conditioned structures, it is hypothesized that long-term Spanish immigrants will show difficulty with the interpretation and use of the ongoing value of the Spanish simple present due to transfe…
Transfer Effects at the Syntax-Semantics Interface
This study examines the role of transfer from English in the acquisition of double-que questions in Spanish among 17 heritage speakers in the US. Results from an elicited production task, an acceptability judgment task and a preference task revealed significant difficulties in the production and acceptability of double-que questions. In contrast with interface vulnerability approaches suggesting no difficulties at the syntax-semantics interface, …
Crosslinguistic influence at the syntax proper
This study examines the potential effects of crosslinguistic influence in the acquisition of subject–verb inversion in Spanish matrix and embedded wh-questions among Spanish heritage language learners living in the United States. The results from an acceptability judgment task and a written production task administered to 17 US-born heritage speakers indicate crosslinguistic influence effects. The effects are more evident with embedded interrogat…
The syntax-semantics of bare and definite plural subjects in the L2 Spanish of English natives
This study investigates the extent to which advanced native-English L2 learners of Spanish come to acquire restrictions on bare plural preverbal subjects in L2 Spanish (e.g. gatos “cats” vs. definite plurals such as los gatos “the cats”). It tests L2 knowledge of available semantic readings of bare plurals and definite plurals in Spanish, where [+specific] and [+generic] interpretations are syntactically represented differently from English. Assu…
On the role of experience and age-related effects
The present study examines and compares the extent to which advanced L2 learners of Spanish and Spanish heritage speakers acquire the syntactic and semantic properties that regulate the grammatical representation of double complementizer questions in Spanish, a CP-related structure not present in English. Results from an aural sentence completion task, an acceptability judgment task, and a preference task indicate significant differences between …
Grammatical gender selection and phrasal word order in child heritage Spanish
The present study examines the development of grammatical gender assignment, agreement, and noun-adjective word order in child heritage Spanish among thirty-two Spanish–English bilingual children born and raised in the United States. A picture-naming task revealed significant overextension of the masculine form and high levels of ungrammatical word order strings. There were no significant differences by age regarding gender concord or noun-adject…
The status of interrogative subject-verb inversion in Spanish-English bilingual children
The Role of Literary Instruction in the Development of Reading and Writing Skills in Spanish as a Heritage Language during Childhood
The present study examines the role of instruction in the development of reading and writing skills in Spanish as a heritage language during childhood. Sixty-six (n=66) Spanish heritage speakers in K-4th grade participated in an 18-week Spanish intervention. The curriculum included the development of phonological awareness, reading fluency and accuracy as well as vocabulary via cognate instruction. Undergraduate students majoring in Spanish condu…
A pragmatic analysis of L2 Spanish requests
This study examines pragmatic acquisition of requests for English-speaking learners of Spanish. This research expands upon previous work by investigating the acquisition of second language requests during a short-term immersion program (6 weeks) in Madrid, Spain and in three situational contexts: food and drink, general merchandise, and familial. Data were collected using an experimental computerized oral discourse completion task. Requests made …
Second Language Acquisition of Spanish Service Industry Requests in an Immersion Context
The current study examines English-speaking learners of Spanish and their pragmatic development of request forms during a six-week immersion program in Madrid, Spain. Elicited production and intuition data were analyzed, focusing on personal deictic orientation, directness evidenced by clause type, and the use of por favor 'please,' and comparing learners to native speakers of Peninsular Spanish. Results indicate pragmatic acquisition over the sh…
Does Typological Proximity Really Matter? Evidence from Mandarin and Brazilian Portuguese-Speaking Learners of Spanish
The present study examines the role of typological proximity in the acquisition of Differential Object Marking (DOM) in Spanish among eighteen (n = 18) Mandarin-speaking second language (L2) learners and sixteen (n = 16) Spanish heritage speakers (HSs) with Brazilian Portuguese (BP) as their dominant language. Specifically, we investigate the extent to which language proximity (languages are members of the same family) plays a role in the complet…
Structure complexity effects in child heritage Spanish
Aims and objectives: This study examines the acquisition of Differential Object Marking (DOM) in heritage Spanish children born in the USA and the potential role of structure complexity and chronological age. Design: Bilingual children were compared with monolingual children matched by age and long-term immigrants (children’s parents) via an Elicited Production task. We elicited the distribution of personal a in simple and Clitic Left Dislocated …
The production and comprehension of Spanish se use in L2 and heritage Spanish
Previous studies in the acquisition of clitic se in Spanish have focused on the syntactic processes needed to perform detransitivization. However, current approaches on event structure reveal that se encodes aspectual information which is crucial for its acquisition. We examine the use, intuition and interpretation of the aspectual features constraining the clitic se in Spanish with physical change of state verbs and psychological verbs in declar…
Object clitic use and intuition in the Spanish of heritage speakers from Brazil
The present study examines the production and intuition of Spanish clitics in clitic left dislocation (CLLD) structures among 26 Spanish heritage speakers (HSs) born and raised in Brazil. We tested clitic production and intuition in contexts in which Spanish clitics vary as a function of the semantic features of the object that they refer to. Results showed overextension of object clitics into contexts in which null objects were expected. Further…
Copulas ser and estar production in child and adult heritage speakers of Spanish
Early exposure and input type in the production of Spanish accusative clitics by Chinese-Spanish bilinguals
The current study examines the production of object clitic pronouns among Chinese/Spanish bilinguals via an elicited narrative task. A total of 11 simultaneous bilinguals, 10 sequential bilinguals from Peru and 21 Chinese-speaking L2 learners from China participated in the study. Results showed an advantage by the simultaneous bilinguals regarding target clitic use. However, no significant differences were observed between the sequential bilingua…
Crosslinguistic Influence in the Discrimination of Korean Stop Contrast by Heritage Speakers and Second Language Learners
The present study examines the extent of crosslinguistic influence from English as a dominant language in the perception of the Korean lenis-aspirated contrast among Korean heritage speakers in the United States (N = 20) and English-speaking learners of Korean as a second language (N = 20), as compared to native speakers of Korean immersed in the first language environment (N = 20), by using an AX discrimination task. In addition, we sought to de…
Structured variation, language experience, and crosslinguistic influence shape child heritage speakers’ Spanish direct objects
This study investigates child heritage speakers’ Spanish direct objects. A task designed to elicit direct objects was completed in Spanish and English by 40 child heritage speakers of Spanish in the U.S., and in Spanish by 24 monolingual children in Mexico. Both participant groups varied their direct object forms, following the same ranking: clitics>lexical NPs>omission>doubling. Animate referents promoted clitics; inanimate referents promoted le…
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 …
Protracted development in child heritage Spanish
The present study examined the production of inalienable possession with body parts in Spanish among 20 school-age children of Mexican-born parents born and raised in the United States. The results were compared to those of 20 first-generation immigrant parents (main input providers), 27 Spanish-dominant children of similar age, and 12 Spanish monolingual parents living in Mexico. Group and individual results obtained via a question-and-answer ta…
Infinitive vs. Gerund Use and Interpretation in Heritage Spanish
The present study examines the production and interpretation of infinitives among 26 Spanish heritage speakers born and raised in the US and 25 Spanish-dominant speakers from Mexico and Colombia. We tested participants' knowledge of infinitives as subjects of the clause and as objects of a preposition via an elicited production task and a contextualized preference task. The results of both tasks showed less infinitive use by the HSs and overexten…
The Distribution of Manner and Frequency Adverbs in Child Heritage Speakers of Spanish
We investigate the acquisition of adverb placement in Spanish among school-age child heritage speakers of Spanish born and raised in the US by Mexican parents. We examine frequency and manner adverbs with negative and positive polarity and the potential role of cross-linguistic influence, dominance, and experience in the path and rate of development. Fourteen child heritage speakers of Spanish born and raised in the US and twenty-five Spanish mon…
The Acquisition of Inalienable Possession in L2 and Heritage Spanish
The present study examines the production and interpretation of inalienable possession in dative constructions with body-part nouns in Spanish by 25 English-speaking L2 learners and 25 heritage speakers of Spanish born and raised in the United States. Twenty Spanish-dominant speakers served as baseline group. The results showed significant divergencies with inalienable NP s among the L2 learners compared to the heritage speakers and Spanish-domin…
On the production of bare nouns and case marking in Korean heritage speakers in contact with English
Linguistics (27 obras) · Psychology (27 obras) · Heritage language (17 obras) · Language Development and Disorders (16 obras) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (14 obras) · Philosophy (12 obras) · Multilingual Education and Policy (11 obras) · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning (10 obras) · Computer Science (9 obras) · Neuroscience of multilingualism (8 obras)