Ticio, M. E.
Syracuse University
Spanish grammatically marks a subset of its accusative objects (Differential Object Marking, DOM), while English does not. The distribution of Spanish DOM is determined by many factors, including the definiteness, agentivity, affectedness or animacy of the object, and the lexical semantics of verb (Torrego (1998), Rodríguez-Mondoñedo (2008), among others). DOM?s complexity has accounted for the difficulties that L2 learners and adult bilinguals display in its acquisition (Martoccio (2012)); contrasting with the flawless accuracy of Spanish monolingual children (L1) acquiring DOM (Rodríguez-Mondoñedo (2008), Montrul (2011)). This study examines the acquisition of DOM in the spontaneous production of early Spanish-English simultaneous bilinguals (2L1). The data comes from longitudinal databases (127 files) of seven Spanish-English 2L1 (Age range: 1;1-3;6,; MLUw range: 0-5) with different linguistic environments (i.e., majority language). The results show that 2L1 in the group have a later emergence age of DOM, which ranges from 2;2 to 2;11 (cf. 1;09-2;04 in L1, Rodríguez-Mondoñedo (2008)); a low accuracy rate of object marking, which averages 27% in 2L1; and a lack of commission errors, while commission and omission errors are evenly distributed in L1, cf. Rodríguez-Mondoñedo (2008)). In addition, these results suggest a connection between emergence of dative constructions and DOM, with all the subjects producing dative constructions prior to DOM. Overall, the 2L1 were closer to L2 learners in their results, which supports the conclusion that the 2L1 have not acquired DOM in Spanish in the period examined. To the extent that it is correct, this study empirically documents that, under reduced input conditions, 2L1s develop core aspects of their language, but their grammatical systems show a marked tendency toward simplification. This simplification precludes them from completely acquiring language-specific properties, such as DOM in Spanish, and leaves them with incomplete grammars (Sorace (2005), Montrul (2008), Pires & Rothman (2009)).