Amelia Jimenez Gaspar

@investigacion.unir.net

Professor at the Faculty of Educational Sciences and Humanities
Universidad Internacional de La Rioja

Amelia Jimenez Gaspar


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https://researchid.co/amelia.fhi

RESEARCH, TEACHING, or OTHER INTERESTS

Language and Linguistics, Education
6

Scopus Publications

58

Scholar Citations

4

Scholar h-index

2

Scholar i10-index

Scopus Publications

  • ON THE EARLY ACQUISITION OF (NULL) SUBJECTS IN CATALAN AS A HERITAGE LANGUAGE
    Laia Arnaus Gil, Amelia Jiménez-Gaspar
    Romanica Cracoviensia, 2024
    Languages vary as to whether subjects must be overtly expressed. Much research has focused on how this phenomenon is acquired by monolingual and simultaneous bilingual children. For the latter, numerous studies have examined the acquisition of (null) subjects in Romance-English bilingual children. Just a few studies have considered the simultaneous acquisition of German and Spanish/Catalan, the former being recently described as a partial and the latter as consistent null subject languages. Our results with thirty Catalan-German children (Ø 5;8) living in Germany indicate that null subject rates, on average, are similar to the monolingual group and are independent of language dominance. Results on (a) subject type, position and (b) age, language dominance, HL-proficiency are examined.
  • The Role of Internal and External Factors for Code-Switching: A Study of Early Multilingualism in Germany with Special Reference to Catalan as a Heritage Language
    Laia Arnaus Gil, Amelia Jiménez-Gaspar
    Languages, 2022
    In heritage language acquisition studies, it has been observed that heritage speakers may experience a shift of language dominance from the heritage language to the majority language due to input quantity and quality factors. The appearance of code-switching in the productions of multilingual speakers has been well attested and has been mostly linked to age and language dominance as well as family language policies and consistence of input, among other factors. For the appearance of code-switching, our cross-sectional study analyses language dominance (MLU) and fluency (w/minute) along with child-external factors, such as family language policies, family language and siblings’ interaction, in sixteen multilingual children (mean age 5;7) being raised in Germany with German and Catalan (and another L1) simultaneously. In a nutshell, children who are dominant in the majority language ultimately code-switch more frequently than the other groups. Interestingly, balanced and heritage-language-dominant children present instances of intrasentential code-switching (particularly insertions and alternations), while intersentential code-switching is frequent across all groups. When families have chosen the ‘one person-one language’ strategy and do not have a family language, code-switching is almost absent. Finally, sibling groups using both the heritage and the majority languages in their interactions show low code-switching rates.
  • Catalan as a Heritage Language in Germany
    Laia Arnaus Gil, Amelia Jiménez-Gaspar
    Languages, 2022
    Germany is currently the third country with more Catalan residents mainly characterized as families with children born in Germany but raised with Catalan as heritage language (HL). Only few studies have investigated Catalan as an HL in Germany. Our study tries to fill this gap with spontaneous recordings of 16 bilingual and trilingual children (mean age 5;7). In terms of language competence (measured via MLU), balanced bilingualism is present in most children (44%), followed by those showing a dominance into German (38%). Interestingly, regarding language use (measured in w/minute), both balanced and Catalan dominants were fluent in both L1s similarly, while the German dominant group mostly prefer German. Moreover, the parents filled in a questionnaire on current and cumulative input from which some factors were examined such as family language policies (FLP), child’s language choice to the Catalan-speaking parent, Catalan skills of the non-native parent, family language and frequency of comprehension and production activities. In a nutshell, the results show that FLP and HL as FL or no FL seem to have an impact in the child’s grammatical development in the very early years, as opposed to family language. Children mostly direct their speech in the HL when talking to the Catalan-speaking parent.
  • Bilingualism and language change: the case of pronominal clitics in Catalan and Spanish
    Amelia Jiménez-Gaspar, Acrisio Pires, Pedro Guijarro-Fuentes
    International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 2020
    This study investigates the knowledge of bilingual speakers of Catalan and Spanish regarding the production of object pronominal clitics (excluding non-reflexive third-person clitics), with a focus on: (i) their morphology, considering the variants that coexist for each form, and (ii) their syntactic placement (proclitic or enclitic) with respect to the verb. We present results from a study of thirty-nine simultaneous bilingual Catalan-Spanish speakers, residents of several geographic areas of Majorca, Spain, including the capital, Palma, and several villages. The speaker data came from a spontaneous oral production task carried out separately in each one of the two languages. We also analyze historical data from a diachronic corpus of Catalan to evaluate whether clitic properties of the Catalan produced by bilinguals constitute grammatical innovations in the language. The results indicate that bilingual speakers of Majorcan Catalan mostly acquire archaic forms for clitics (proclitics and enclitics) that also match the corresponding form of Majorcan Spanish clitics. We interpret these results as showing an effect of bilingualism with Spanish that has contributed to the preservation of archaic forms in the grammar of bilingual speakers of Catalan in Majorca because these forms partially match the ones found in Spanish.
  • Transfer and convergence between Catalan and Spanish in a bilingual setting
    Amelia Jiménez-Gaspar, Acrisio Pires, Pedro Guijarro-Fuentes
    Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 2020
    We present results from a production study of forty-five bilingual Catalan-Spanish speakers (26 women and 19 men, aged 16 to 65 years old), to determine whether there is transfer or convergence between the two languages in a bilingual setting. The participants are residents of the capital and several villages of Majorca (Spain). We provide evidence that the production of third-person clitics in Majorcan Catalan is clearly affected by bilingualism with Spanish. First, there is a pattern of partial transfer in the use of the neutral clitic ho in Majorcan Catalan, which shows a semantic extension matching Spanish lo. Second, the bilinguals show a pattern of syllabic (CV(C)) forms of pronominal clitics, favored by a similarity with Spanish forms. This provides evidence of both morphophonological and semantic transfer in the knowledge and production of bilinguals who acquired both languages in childhood.
  • The acquisition of Spanish SER and ESTAR in bilingual and trilingual children: Delay and enhancement
    Laia Arnaus Gil, Amelia Jiménez-Gaspar, Natascha Müller
    Language Acquisition and Contact in the Iberian Peninsula, 2018

RECENT SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS

  • On the Early Acquisition of (Null) Subjects in Catalan as a Heritage Language
    LA Gil, A Jiménez-Gaspar
    Romanica Cracoviensia 24 (3), 367-381 , 2024
    2024
  • Preverbal, postverbal, and null subjects in Spanish: Comparing multilingual speaker groups and methods
    J Stahnke, LA Gil, JC Martínez, A Jiménez-Gaspar, E Scalise, ...
    Spanish as a second and third language 42, 147-176 , 2024
    2024
  • The Role of Internal and External Factors for Code-Switching: A Study of Early Multilingualism in Germany with Special Reference to Catalan as a Heritage Language
    L Arnaus Gil, A Jiménez-Gaspar
    Languages 7 (4), 258 , 2022
    2022
    Citations: 8
  • The role of (older) siblings in the acquisition of heritage languages: Early Catalan-German bilingualism in Germany
    A Jiménez-Gaspar, L Arnaus Gil
    Cultura en transició. Estudis culturals a la catalanística 16, 165-210 , 2022
    2022
    Citations: 3
  • Catalan as a heritage language in Germany
    L Arnaus Gil, A Jiménez-Gaspar
    Languages 7 (1), 43 , 2022
    2022
    Citations: 12
  • Bilingualism and language change. The production of the pronominal clitics and the differential object marking in majorcan catalan and spanish
    A Jiménez-Gaspar
    Universitat de les Illes Balears , 2021
    2021
    Citations: 1
  • Transfer and convergence between Catalan and Spanish in a bilingual setting
    A Jiménez-Gaspar, A Pires, P Guijarro-Fuentes
    Hispanic Contact Linguistics: Theoretical, methodological and empirical … , 2020
    2020
    Citations: 3
  • The acquisition of Spanish SER and ESTAR in bilingual and trilingual children: Delay and enhancement
    LA Gil, A Jiménez-Gaspar, N Müller
    Language acquisition and contact in the Iberian Peninsula 57, 91 , 2018
    2018
    Citations: 18
  • BILINGÜISMO Y VARIACIÓN: JUICIOS DE GRAMATICA-LIDAD COMO EVIDENCIA DE LA PREFERENCIA POR EL VERNÁCULO
    A Jiménez-Gaspar, A Pires, PG Fuentes
    E-Aesla, 305-314 , 2018
    2018
    Citations: 1
  • Bilingualism and language change: the case of pronominal clitics in Catalan and Spanish
    A Jiménez-Gaspar, A Pires, P Guijarro-Fuentes
    International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 1-19 , 2017
    2017
    Citations: 9
  • Clitic Doubling in Majorcan Spanish and Catalan
    A Jiménez-Gaspar, P Guijarro-Fuentes, A Pires
    Vargas-Sierra, C.(Hg.), AESLA, 148-158 , 2017
    2017
    Citations: 3

MOST CITED SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS

  • The acquisition of Spanish SER and ESTAR in bilingual and trilingual children: Delay and enhancement
    LA Gil, A Jiménez-Gaspar, N Müller
    Language acquisition and contact in the Iberian Peninsula 57, 91 , 2018
    2018
    Citations: 18
  • Catalan as a heritage language in Germany
    L Arnaus Gil, A Jiménez-Gaspar
    Languages 7 (1), 43 , 2022
    2022
    Citations: 12
  • Bilingualism and language change: the case of pronominal clitics in Catalan and Spanish
    A Jiménez-Gaspar, A Pires, P Guijarro-Fuentes
    International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 1-19 , 2017
    2017
    Citations: 9
  • The Role of Internal and External Factors for Code-Switching: A Study of Early Multilingualism in Germany with Special Reference to Catalan as a Heritage Language
    L Arnaus Gil, A Jiménez-Gaspar
    Languages 7 (4), 258 , 2022
    2022
    Citations: 8
  • The role of (older) siblings in the acquisition of heritage languages: Early Catalan-German bilingualism in Germany
    A Jiménez-Gaspar, L Arnaus Gil
    Cultura en transició. Estudis culturals a la catalanística 16, 165-210 , 2022
    2022
    Citations: 3
  • Transfer and convergence between Catalan and Spanish in a bilingual setting
    A Jiménez-Gaspar, A Pires, P Guijarro-Fuentes
    Hispanic Contact Linguistics: Theoretical, methodological and empirical … , 2020
    2020
    Citations: 3
  • Clitic Doubling in Majorcan Spanish and Catalan
    A Jiménez-Gaspar, P Guijarro-Fuentes, A Pires
    Vargas-Sierra, C.(Hg.), AESLA, 148-158 , 2017
    2017
    Citations: 3
  • Bilingualism and language change. The production of the pronominal clitics and the differential object marking in majorcan catalan and spanish
    A Jiménez-Gaspar
    Universitat de les Illes Balears , 2021
    2021
    Citations: 1
  • BILINGÜISMO Y VARIACIÓN: JUICIOS DE GRAMATICA-LIDAD COMO EVIDENCIA DE LA PREFERENCIA POR EL VERNÁCULO
    A Jiménez-Gaspar, A Pires, PG Fuentes
    E-Aesla, 305-314 , 2018
    2018
    Citations: 1
  • On the Early Acquisition of (Null) Subjects in Catalan as a Heritage Language
    LA Gil, A Jiménez-Gaspar
    Romanica Cracoviensia 24 (3), 367-381 , 2024
    2024
  • Preverbal, postverbal, and null subjects in Spanish: Comparing multilingual speaker groups and methods
    J Stahnke, LA Gil, JC Martínez, A Jiménez-Gaspar, E Scalise, ...
    Spanish as a second and third language 42, 147-176 , 2024
    2024