An empirical study on the acquisition of English prepositional relative clauses by Spanish native speakers
Prepositional Relative Clauses are grammatical structures which can be formed through two different processes: Preposition Pied-Piping (PPiP) or Preposition Stranding (PS). English and Spanish are languages which differ with respect to the formation of Prepositional Relative Clauses in the sense tha...
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| Format: | doctoral thesis |
| Publication Date: | 2019 |
| Country: | España |
| Institution: | Universidad de Valladolid |
| Repository: | UVaDOC. Repositorio Documental de la Universidad de Valladolid |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:uvadoc.uva.es:10324/39535 |
| Online Access: | http://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/39535 |
| Access Level: | Open access |
| Keyword: | Prepositional Relative Clauses Preposition Pied-Piping 5701.11 Enseñanza de Lenguas |
| Summary: | Prepositional Relative Clauses are grammatical structures which can be formed through two different processes: Preposition Pied-Piping (PPiP) or Preposition Stranding (PS). English and Spanish are languages which differ with respect to the formation of Prepositional Relative Clauses in the sense that whereas in English both options are allowed, in Spanish there is only one possibility, PPiP. The following dissertation is an empirical study whose main objective is that of investigating the acquisition process of these structures in Spanish speakers who are currently studying English as their L2 and belong to different English proficiency levels. To do so, 24 L1 Spanish students were selected to complete two tasks which tested the comprehension and production of Prepositional Relative Clauses in English. The results show that the participants did not resort to their L1 when they contemplated these structures in their L2 regardless their proficiency level in English, as most of them produced and accepted the option that is not available in Spanish, or in other words, PS. Apart from this, it has been also observed an important number of cases where the preposition was omitted, which decreased as the level of proficiency in English was higher. |
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