First Language Acquisition in Spanish: A Minimalist Approach to Nominal Agreement (Continuum Studies in Theoretical Linguistics)

Abstract

The aim of this monograph is to present a cross-sectional experimental approach to the study of nominal agreement in Spanish child language with the purpose of complementing previous studies on this subject and in some instances _x001E_ lling the gaps left by them. In particular, this monograph focuses on the acquisition of gender (feminine/masculine) and number (singular/plural) agreement by three monolingual Spanish-speaking chil-dren under the age of three. The majority of studies on the acquisition of Spanish as a _x001E_ rst language are written in the context of the parametric approach, but I have chosen to adopt the framework of the Minimalist Program (MP) (Chomsky 1995, 2001) for two major reasons. First, the MP offers an elegant analysis of the acquisition of nominal agreement based on a process of matching or checking features (see Chapter 1). Second, it is hoped that the use of this approach will advance the research on Spanish acquisition to the theoretical developments of the past 15 years. Nonethe-less, the adoption of a new paradigm is not without its challenges, as will be discussed in the remainder of the book.