The category of animacy and its acquisition in the grammars of Russian and Spanish
https://doi.org/10.46272/2409-3416-2018-2-48-57
Abstract
The category of animacy is the expression in grammar of the opposition between animate and inanimate beings. This category does not grammaticalize in every language and, even if it does, it almost never grammaticalizes in the same way. To show this, I will analyze here the animacy effects in two languages, which seem to grammaticalize in similar ways (Spanish and Russian). In these two languages, animacy mainly affects differential object marking (the so-called DOM). Unlike other European languages, both Russian and Spanish make use of DOM for animate objects (Veo a mi amigo / Я вижу своего друга), but there are independent factors that distinguish the Russian and the Spanish patterns. Having in mind the difficulties that learners of Russian and Spanish must face, I will offer a brief comparative of the acquisition of the DOM in these two languages by different types of speakers (speakers of L1, heritage language speakers and speakers of L2).
References
1. Kittilä, Seppo, Katja Vasti & Jussi Ylikoski (eds.) 2011. Case, animacy and semantic roles. Amsterdam-Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
2. Silverstein, Michael. 1976. Hierarchy of features and ergativity. In Robert M. W. Dixon (ed.), Grammatical categories in Australian languages, New Jersey: Humanities Press, 112–171.
3. Corbett, Greville G. 2000. Number. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
4. Bossong, Georg. 1991. Differential object marking in Romance and beyond. In D. Wanner and D. Kibbee (eds.) New Analyses in Romance Linguistics, Selected Papers from the XVIII Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages 1988. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 143–170.
5. Igartua, Iván & Nerea Madariaga. 2018. The interplay of semantic and formal factors in Russian morphosyntax: Animate paucal constructions in direct object function. Russian Linguistics 42: 27–55.
6. Torrego, Esther. 1998. The dependency of objects. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
7. Zagona, Karen T. 2002. The Syntax of Spanish. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
8. Heusinger, Klaus von & Kaiser, Georg A. 2003. Animacy, Specificity, and Definiteness in Spanish. In Klaus von Heusinger & Georg A. Kaiser (eds.) Proceedings of the Workshop Semantic and Syntactic Aspects of Specificity in Romance Languages. Fachbereich Sprachwissenschaf: 41–65.
9. Gvozdev, A. N. 1961. Voprosy izučenija detskoj reči. Moskva.
10. Hrzica, Gordana, Marijan Palmovic, Melita Kovacevic, Maria Voeikova et al. 2015. Animacy and case in the acquisition of differential object marking in Croatian and Russian Article. Revue de Linguistique Romane 60: 351–368.
11. Galkina, Je. V. 2015. Osvoenije markirovanija oduševlënnosti – neoduševlënnosti russkojazyčnym rebënkom rannego vozrasta. Materialy ontolingvistiki: mexanizmy osvoenije jazyka i stanovlenie rečevoj kompetencii (Materialy meždunarodnoj konferencii 18-20 maja 2015).
12. Rodríguez-Mondoñedo, Miguel. 2008. The Acquisition of Differential Object Marking in Spanish. Probus 20: 111–145.
13. Montrul, Silvina & Noelia Sánchez-Walker. 2013. Differential Object Marking in Child and Adult Spanish Heritage Speakers. Language Acquisition 20: 109–132.
14. Polinsky, Maria. 2006. Incomplete acquisition: American Russian. Journal of Slavic Linguistics 14: 191–262.
15. Guijarro-Fuentes, Pedro & Theodoros Marinis. 2007. Acquiring the syntax/semantic interface in L2 Spanish: The personal preposition a. Eurosla Yearbook 2007 (7): 67–87.
16. Guijarro-Fuentes, Pedro, Acrisio Pires & Will Nediger. 2017. Delay in the acquisition of Differential Object Marking by Spanish monolingual and bilingual teenagers. International Journal of Bilingualism 21.
17. Artoni, Daniele & Marco Magnani. 2015. Acquiring case marking in Russian as a second language: an exploratory study on subject and object. In: Camilla Bettoni & Bruno Di Biase (eds.) Grammatical development in second languages: Exploring the boundaries of Processability Theory. Amsterdam: The European Second Language Association, 177–194.
18. Èsmantova, T. L. 2009. Russkij jazyk: 5 èlementov, uroven’ A2 (bazovyj). Sankt-Peterburg: Zlatoust.
19. Antonova, V. Je., M. M. Naxabina & A. A. Tolstyx. 2009. Doroga v Rossiju. Učebnik russkogo jazyka (bazovyj uroven’) 2. Sankt-Peterbug: Zlatoust / Moskva: TsMO MGU.
20. Antonova, V. Je., M. M. Naxabina, M. V. Safronova & A. A. Tolstyx. 2010. Doroga v Rossiju. Učebnik russkogo jazyka (èlementarnyj uroven’) 1. Sankt-Peterbug: Zlatoust / Moskva: TsMO MGU.
21. Karavanova, N. B. 2015. Matrëška: èlementarnyj praktičeskyj kurs russkogo jazyka 0-A1. Moskva: Russkij Jazyk.
22. Černyšov, S. 2009. Poexali. Russkij jazyk dlja vyroslyx. Načalnyj kurs. Sankt-Peterburg: Zlatoust.
23. Černyšov, S. & A. Černyšova. 2009. Poexali-2. Russkij jazyk dlja vyroslyx. Bazovyj kurs, Tom I, Tom II. SanktPeterburg: Zlatoust.
24. Nogueira, Violeta, Marina Gorbatkina, Caridad Mercader & María Oganissian. 2003. Russkij Jazyk. Ruso para hispanohablantes Nivel 1. Herder.
25. Nogueira, Violeta, Marina Gorbatkina, Caridad Mercader & María Oganissian. 2004. Russkij jazyk. Ruso para hispanohablantes Nivel 2 (A2). Herder.
26. Alonso, Montserrat & Rocío Prieto. 2011. Embarque. Curso de español lengua extranjera. (niveles A1, A2, B1, B2). Madrid: Edelsa.
27. Castro, Francisca, Pilar Díaz, Ignacio Rodero & Carmen Sardinero. 2014. Nuevo español en marcha, nivel A1. Madrid: SGEL.
28. Castro, Francisca, Ignacio Rodero & Carmen Sardinero. 2014. Nuevo español en marcha, niveles A2, B1, B2. Madrid: SGEL.
29. Castro, Francisca, Fernando Marín, Reyes Morales & Soledad Rosa. 2003. Nuevo Ven. Español lengua extranjera. Niveles A1/A2. Madrid: Edelsa.
30. Castro, Francisca, Fernando Marín & Reyes Morales. 2004. Nuevo Ven. Español lengua extranjera. Nivel 2. Madrid: Edelsa.
31. Castro, Francisca, Fernando Marín & Reyes Morales. 2005. Nuevo Ven. Español lengua extranjera. Nivel 3. Madrid: Edelsa.
32. VVAA. 2007. Prisma. Continúa (nivel A2). Método de español para extranjeros. Madrid: Edinumen.
33. D’jakonov, O. 2011. Neskučnaja ispanskaja grammatika. Moskva: Èksmo. 34. Díaz, Eva. 2010. Nos vemos (A1–A2). Barcelona: Difusión.
34. Vinogradov, V. S. 2000. Grammatika ispanskogo jazyka. Praktičeskij kurs. Moskva: Knižnij dom.
35. Aissen, Judith. 2003. Differential object marking: Iconicity vs. Economy. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 21: 435–448.
36. Tsejtlin, S. N. 2009. Očerki po slovoobrazovaniju i formoobrazovaniju v detskoj reči. Moskva.
37. Leonetti, Manuel. 2004. Specificity and Differential Object Marking in Spanish. Catalan Journal of Linguistics 3:75–114.
Review
For citations:
Nerea M. The category of animacy and its acquisition in the grammars of Russian and Spanish. Cuadernos Iberoamericanos. 2018;(2):48-57. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.46272/2409-3416-2018-2-48-57
Views:
1368
Email the author 
