Date of Award

2007

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Program

Hispanic Studies

Supervisor

Joyce Bruhn de Garavito

Abstract

This study investigates incomplete acquisition in simultaneous bilinguals and first language attrition in late L2 bilinguals of English. Three groups are compared (n=10) Spanish monolingual speakers, (n=10) simultaneous bilinguals (n=10) and L2 late bilinguals. Three linguistic tests measure the command of the verbal structures ± preposition. It is hypothesized that the onset of language learning together with the input plays an important role in acquisition. In other words, it is assumed that the late bilinguals have an increased level of competence in their L1 for having been exposed to it for a longer period, while the heritage speakers are prone to show more noticeable language deficits if incomplete acquisition has occurred during childhood.

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