Work

Nadando es mi deporte favorito : Infinitives and gerunds in the speech of Spanish/English bilingual children and adolescents

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: 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 than their Spanish-dominant parents in subject position and with parar de , often overextending the gerund. By contrast, all groups performed more accurately with parar a , where English and Spanish align structurally. Language dominance and Spanish experience significantly predicted more target-like infinitive use, while chronological age and English dominance were associated with increased gerund overextension. These findings support the Bilingual Alignment Hypothesis , showing that heritage Spanish morphosyntactic development is gradual and context-sensitive, with greater accuracy in areas of crosslinguistic convergence.

Source: Bilingualism Language and Cognition

DOI: 10.1017/s1366728925100771

Authors: Alejandro Cuza, Laura Solano-Escobar, Santiago Castillo Revelo, Francisco Clavijo, Edier Gomez-Alzate

Institutions: Purdue University West Lafayette, University of North Carolina Wilmington

Language: English

Topic: Language Development and Disorders

Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,550

OpenAlex ID: W4416570923