- Formal syntax, Romance Linguistics, Language Variation and Change, Andean Spanish, Contact Linguistics, Information structure (Languages And Linguistics), and 21 moreBilingualism and Multilingualism, Fieldwork in linguistics, Spanish Linguistics, Dialectology (Latin American Spanish), Second Language Acquisition, Convergence, Morphology-syntax interface, including clitics, periphrasis, Spanish as a Foreign Language, Dialect syntax, Lexical-Functional Grammar, Morphology, Spanish in contact with other languages, Language Typology, Syntax, Noun Phrase, Psycholinguistics, Morphosyntax, Linguistics, Hispanic Linguistics, Information Structure, and Quechuaedit
- I am a Lecturer in Spanish and Hispanic Linguistics and the Director of the Australian National Center for Latin Amer... moreI am a Lecturer in Spanish and Hispanic Linguistics and the Director of the Australian National Center for Latin American Studies at the Australian National University in Canberra. I work on dialect syntax, formal syntax, language contact and change, bilingualism, language acquisition, intercultural bilingual education and language policies. Over the past years my focus has been on monolingual and bilingual Spanish and Portuguese varieties arising from multidirectional contact with indigenous languages, consequences for intercultural bilingual education and language policies. My research is based on extensive fieldwork in Peru and crossing borders into the Brazilian Amazon. You can read more about me here: https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/mayer-eedit
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Direct object clitics in Spanish are morphological markers at the interface of syntax and phonology, morphology, semantics and information structure. We explore variability in direct object clitic doubling and argument marking in... more
Direct object clitics in Spanish are morphological markers at the interface of syntax and phonology, morphology, semantics and information structure. We explore variability in direct object clitic doubling and argument marking in bilingual speakers of Shipibo-Spanish and Ashéninka-Perené-Spanish (Mayer & Sánchez, 2017b). We focus on the production of the dative versus the accusative forms of the clitic and on the expression of Differential Object Marking (DOM) (Aissen, 2003; Bossong, 1991; Dalrymple & Nikolaeva, 2011), in particular, on the extension of DOM to definite inanimate DPs and the lack of DOM with animate direct objects required in other varieties of Spanish. We analyze this variability as the coexistence of two different argument-marking systems in these contact varieties of Amazonian Spanish.
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Generative linguists have mostly been concerned with either idealised data sets that nicely fit their theory, or an idealised relationship between speakers and their homogeneous speech community. Lexical-Functional Grammar is different... more
Generative linguists have mostly been concerned with either idealised data sets that nicely fit their theory, or an idealised relationship between speakers and their homogeneous speech community. Lexical-Functional Grammar is different from other formal theories. In allowing for a less rigid theory, structures and constraints can be linked to incorporate linear order and information structure. This constraint-based theory accommodates variation and change, it allows for my descriptive analysis of nonstandardised variation. The goal of this dissertation is to explore the complex relationship between differential object marking and clitic doubling in nonstandardised variation data from Lime{u00F1}o Spanish contact varieties (LSCV). The main focus of this study is on the microvariation of the person three clitic paradigm cooccurring with extended differential object marking in nonstandardised linguistic phenomena. In particular I focus on 'strange lo', a featureless and invaria...
Research Interests: Mathematics and Lime
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Previous evidence suggests clitics and determiners do not enter the same type of gender agreement relations in contact varieties of Spanish, despite proposals that treat clitics as determiners (big DP – Determiner Phrase – hypothesis)... more
Previous evidence suggests clitics and determiners do not enter the same type of gender agreement relations in contact varieties of Spanish, despite proposals that treat clitics as determiners (big DP – Determiner Phrase – hypothesis) (Uriagereka 1995; Cecchetto 1999, 2000; Belletti 2005). We conducted a study on gender agreement between clitics and their antecedents, and determiners and nouns among adult Shipibo-Spanish bilinguals to answer the following question: Do Shipibo- Spanish bilingual speakers have similar patterns of local vs. long-distance gender agreement? Our results show gender agreement between D and N obtains categorically, but gender agreement between the clitic and its antecedent is at chance-level. We propose an alternative analysis for our data that does not assume the big DP hypothesis.
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Research Interests: Linguistics and Langages
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Indirect object clitic doubling obtains liberally across all Spanish dialects and is not subject to specificity restrictions. Direct object clitic doubling though shows considerable cross-dialectal variation. Animate pronominal direct... more
Indirect object clitic doubling obtains liberally across all Spanish dialects and is not subject to specificity restrictions. Direct object clitic doubling though shows considerable cross-dialectal variation. Animate pronominal direct objects are obligatorily doubled in all dialects. In ...
Research Interests: Linguistics and Clitic
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This study aims to explore language attitudes among speakers of Shipibo, an Amazonian indigenous language from the Panoan family, in the community of Cantagallo in the city of Lima, an urban, Spanish-dominant environment. The study is... more
This study aims to explore language attitudes among speakers of Shipibo, an Amazonian indigenous language from the Panoan family, in the community of Cantagallo in the city of Lima, an urban, Spanish-dominant environment. The study is motivated by the paucity of studies on language attitudes in urban indigenous communities. The Cantagallo Shipibo community was settled in the early 2000s and temporarily relocated in 2017. Methodology: Interviews were conducted based on questionnaires with two groups of participants in 2002 and 2017, 60 in total, focusing on their attitudes toward Shipibo and Spanish. Some of the participants answered the questionnaires both times, others answered only once. Responses were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Open-ended responses were classified into similar categories and tallied. Findings: Participants showed positive attitudes toward Shipibo-Konibo in 2002 and 2017, and strong identification with it, but language shift toward Spanish is now taking place, especially among the second generation. This development has triggered perceived changes in the performance aspects of linguistic identity. Furthermore, while in 2002 attitudes toward Spanish were mostly positive, in 2017 some negative attitudes toward the majority language emerged along with the perception of discrimination against the Shipibo-Konibo.
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Direct object clitics in Spanish are morphological markers at the interfaces of syntax, phonology, morphology, and information structure (Zwicky, 1985; Ordóñez & Repetti, 2006; Belloro, 2007; Spencer & Luís, 2012). They play an important... more
Direct object clitics in Spanish are morphological markers at the interfaces of syntax, phonology, morphology, and information structure (Zwicky, 1985; Ordóñez & Repetti, 2006; Belloro, 2007; Spencer & Luís, 2012). They play an important part in argument morphology in Spanish and are subject to variability in bilingual acquisition (McCarthy, 2008). In this paper we explore the morphology-syntax-information structure mapping of direct object clitics in clitic structures in a range of speakers that includes Quechua-dominant bilinguals and Spanish monolingual individuals along a continuum of language contact situations. Our findings indicate clear dissociation between syntactic properties and marking of morphological features. They also indicate a progression from default gender marking in clitics to a scalar system of clitic forms based on animacy and informational value along the continuum of speakers. Finally, while clitics in liberal clitic doubling varieties receive a focus interp...
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It has been widely argued that morphological competence, particularly functional morphology, represents the bottleneck of second language acquisition (Jensen et al.). In this study, we explore three challenging aspects of the morphology... more
It has been widely argued that morphological competence, particularly functional morphology, represents the bottleneck of second language acquisition (Jensen et al.). In this study, we explore three challenging aspects of the morphology of Spanish among advanced L1 Ashaninka-L2 Spanish speakers: (i) the acquisition of proclitics and enclitics with inflected verbs; (ii) the distribution of accusative clitics according to the thematic role of the direct object in anaphoric and doubling structures; and (iii) the distribution of clitic forms and their association with gender features. Our results show evidence of the L2 acquisition of clitic structures in L2 Spanish speakers, and no difference between native and L2 speakers regarding sensitivity to thematic roles. However, there are statistically significant differences between groups in the distribution of the gender specification of the clitic antecedents or doubled determiner phrases (DPs). We take these results as evidence in support of the view that morphological patterns can be acquired (proclitics vs. suffixes) as well as preferences for mapping thematic roles onto clitics, but subtle differences in the continuum of preferences for mapping gender features are more difficult to acquire.
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In this paper I link 'floating features' in clitic clusters with two third- person participants to a split object marking system, indicative of a language change in process. in: Australian Journal of Linguistics, 2013, Vol. 33, No. 2,... more
In this paper I link 'floating features' in clitic clusters with two third- person participants to a split object marking system, indicative of a language change in process.
in: Australian Journal of Linguistics, 2013, Vol. 33, No. 2, 152-169, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07268602.2013.814528
in: Australian Journal of Linguistics, 2013, Vol. 33, No. 2, 152-169, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07268602.2013.814528
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In Chapter 4, Elisabeth Mayer and Manuel Delicado Cantero analyze the evolution of the inherent locative meaning of the syncretic case/Differential Object Marking (DOM) a on primary object marking in Spanish. In particular, they analyze... more
In Chapter 4, Elisabeth Mayer and Manuel Delicado Cantero analyze the evolution
of the inherent locative meaning of the syncretic case/Differential Object Marking
(DOM) a on primary object marking in Spanish. In particular, they analyze the cases of
extended DOM, that is, the extension of the prepositional accusative to topical inanimate
objects in certain Peruvian contact varieties. The authors argue that this change is
regulated by pragmatic strategies, continuing the diachronically well-attested struggle
between the dative and the accusative for primary object status in monotransitive clauses
(Company 2003). This constitutes continuity as well as innovation of DOM marking. The
paper also highlights the contact avenues which arguably favored such changes (between
Quechua and Spanish, and between Andean Spanish and Standard Peruvian Spanish),
thus illustrating the role of contact as an integral mechanism of change.
of the inherent locative meaning of the syncretic case/Differential Object Marking
(DOM) a on primary object marking in Spanish. In particular, they analyze the cases of
extended DOM, that is, the extension of the prepositional accusative to topical inanimate
objects in certain Peruvian contact varieties. The authors argue that this change is
regulated by pragmatic strategies, continuing the diachronically well-attested struggle
between the dative and the accusative for primary object status in monotransitive clauses
(Company 2003). This constitutes continuity as well as innovation of DOM marking. The
paper also highlights the contact avenues which arguably favored such changes (between
Quechua and Spanish, and between Andean Spanish and Standard Peruvian Spanish),
thus illustrating the role of contact as an integral mechanism of change.
This unpublished Master of Linguistic thesis deals with liberal clitic doubling standard Limeño Spanish.