Tania Lorena Leal

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Scholarly Contributions

Books

• Slabakova, R., Leal, T., & Dom'inguez, L. (2024).

  Research methods in generative second language acquisition

  . Routledge, Taylor & Francis.
• Leal, T., Shimanskaya, E., & Isabelli, C. A. (2022). Generative SLA in the Age of Minimalism: Features, interfaces, and beyond. Selected proceedings of the 15th Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition Conference. John Benjamins Publishing Company.
• Slabakova, R., Leal, T., Dudley, A., & Stack, M. (2020). Generative second language acquisition. Cambridge University Press.
• Cho, J., Iverson, M., Judy, T., Leal, T., & Shimanskaya, E. (2018). Meaning and structure in second language acquisition: In honor of Roumyana Slabakova. John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Chapters

• Leal, T. (2025). Information structure: Topic and focus. In The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition, Morphosyntax, and Semantics(pp 502--517). Routledge.
• Leal, T. (2024). INFORMATION STRUCTURE Topic and focus. In The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition, Morphosyntax and Semantics. doi:10.4324/9781003412373-42
  More info

  Languages use different ways to encode what is new versus what is given information in a discourse context. Languages like English, for instance, often use phonological means to encode this information, while languages such as Spanish can use syntactic operations (e.g., via noncanonical word orders). Languages like Korean or Japanese make use of morphological markers. In this chapter, I define two fundamental notions in Information Structure: Topic and Focus, which broadly denote given versus new information, respectively. I also survey important typological differences among different Topic (thematic, contrastive) and Focus types (e.g., information, contrastive), along with some of their characteristic attributes. The central point is to review research outcomes from L2 investigations of the acquisition of focalization and topicalization structures across different language pairings. In so doing, I also review several hypotheses that have been proposed to explain difficulty with structures that involve both the interface between syntax and information structure, such as the Interface Hypothesis (Sorace, 2011) or the Structural Overlap Hypothesis (Müller & Hulk, 2001). I conclude by examining the impact of methodological decisions on the research of constructions encoding Topic and Focus and offer avenues for future research.
• Leal, T. L. (2024).

   Information Structure: Topic and Focus. 

  . In The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition, Morphosyntax and Semantics(pp pp. 502-517). Routledge.
• Leal, T., & Gupton, T. (2021). Acceptability Experiments in Romance Languages. In Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics(pp 448–476). Cambridge University Press.
• Leal, T., & Renaud, J. (2021). Case assignment in Spanish nominalizations A self-paced reading investigation. In East and West of The Pentacrest Linguistic studies in honor of Paula Kempchinsky. doi:10.1075/ihll.33.08lea
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  Spanish nominalizations, structures in which a determiner precedes an infinitive (el susurrar de Mario "Mario's whispering"), present a syntactic contradiction in which a verb exists within a Determiner Phrase (DP). Speakers attest two types: Nominalizations co-occurring with nominal modifiers (e.g., adjectives, genitive case for argument expression) and those whose modifiers are verbal (adverbs, nominative/accusative arguments). Absent cartographic approaches (Cinque, 2002) predetermining the order of functional heads, the point in the derivation at which verbal categories transition into nominal ones, and this transition's effect on case assignment, are thus far unanswered empirical questions. Using a self-paced reading task, we adopt Alexiadou et al.'s (2011) proposal to experimentally determine the cases available in each nominalization type. Results show that speakers process nominal nominalizations as expected but may allow for the possibility of adverbial adjunction, as suggested by Ramírez (2003). We propose that this data reveals the value of empirically testing syntactic proposals.
• Leal, T. (2018). Mapping at external interfaces: Embedded clitic left dislocations in L2 Spanish. In Meaning and Structure in Second Language Acquisition(pp 35--65). John Benjamins.
• Leal, T., & Shea, C. E. (2018). Psycholinguistic Approaches to Hispanic Linguistics. In The Cambridge Handbook of Spanish Linguistics(pp 95--120). Cambridge University Press.

Journals/Publications

• Leal, T., & Shimanskaya, E. (2024).

  The power paradox in bilingualism: Weighing what we gain and what we lose by espousing and eschewing hypotheses.

  . Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 14(1).
• Hoot, B., & Leal, T. (2023). Crosslinguistic influence from Catalan and Yucatec Maya on judgments and processing of Spanish focus. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 13(4). doi:10.1075/lab.21020.hoo
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  Although a bilingual’s knowledge of one language can affect the other, crosslinguistic influence (CLI) is constrained: certain domains, such as the syntax-discourse interface, are more likely to be affected. Linguists have debated CLI’s nature and cause: the Structural Overlap Hypothesis identifies surface overlap between the languages as the key factor determining CLI, while the Interface Hypothesis highlights the role of processing overloads. Our study presents evidence from processing and judgments of a syntax-discourse interface property – information focus – in the Spanish of Yucatecan Spanish monolinguals, Yucatec Maya-Spanish bilinguals, and Catalan-Spanish bilinguals. The comparison across language dyads that realize information focus in different ways allows us to test predictions for language-specific effects of CLI. Using a forced-choice task to measure offline sentence preferences and a self-paced reading task to measure real-time processing, we find (i) language-specific CLI for Yucatec Maya bilinguals but (ii) no CLI for Catalan bilinguals and (iii) no significant differences in real-time processing. We conclude that these results provide partial support for the Structural Overlap Hypothesis but do not align with the Interface Hypothesis. We also examine the role of language dominance on CLI but find no such effects.
• Hoot, B., & Leal, T. (2023). Resilience and vulnerability of discourse-conditioned word order in heritage Spanish. Applied Psycholinguistics, 1--31.
• Hoot, B., & Leal, T. (2022). Crosslinguistic Influence from Catalan and yucatec maya on judgments and processing of Spanish focus. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism.
• Leal, T., & Hoot, B. (2022). L2 representation and processing of Spanish focus. Language Acquisition, 29(4), 410–440.
• Leal, T., & Renaud, J. (2021). Case assignment in Spanish nominalizations. East and West of The Pentacrest: Linguistic studies in honor of Paula Kempchinsky, 33, 157.
• Shimanskaya, E., & Leal, T. (2021). Feature Matching Does Not Equal Convergence: Acquisition of L2 French Accusative Pronouns by L1 Spanish Speakers. Languages, 6(3), 144.
• Hoot, B., & Leal, T. (2020). Processing subject focus across two Spanish varieties. Probus, 32(1), 93--127.
• Hoot, B., Leal, T., & Destruel, E. (2020). Object focus marking in Spanish: An investigation using three tasks. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics, 5(1).
• Leal, T., & Renaud, J. (2019). Better together: The promise of the PTH as a complementary hypothesis. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 9(6), 854--861.
• Leal, T., & Slabakova, R. (2019). The relationship between L2 instruction, exposure, and the L2 acquisition of a syntax--discourse property in L2 Spanish. Language Teaching Research, 23(2), 237--258.
• Leal, T., Destruel, E., & Hoot, B. (2019). The acquisition of Focus in L2 Spanish. Second Language Research, 35(4), 449--477.
• Cho, J., Iverson, M., Judy, T., Leal, T., & Shimanskaya, E. (2018). Introduction. Meaning and structure in second language acquisition: In honor of Roumyana Slabakova, 55. doi:10.1075/sibil.55.cho
• Leal, T. (2018). Data analysis and sampling. Critical reflections on data in second language acquisition, 51, 63.
• Leal, T., Destruel, E., & Hoot, B. (2018). The realization of information focus in monolingual and bilingual native Spanish. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 8(2), 217--251.
• Leal, T., Slabakova, R., & Farmer, T. A. (2017). The fine-tuning of linguistic expectations over the course of L2 learning. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 39(3), 493--525.
• Leal, T. (2016). Look before you move: Clitic Left Dislocation in combination with other elements in the Spanish left periphery. Revista Espa~nola de Ling"u'istica Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics. Published under the auspices of the Spanish Association of Applied Linguistics, 29(2), 396--428.
• Rothman, J., Slabakova, R., & Leal Méndez, T. (2015). Discourse-sensitive clitic-doubled dislocations in heritage Spanish. Lingua, 155. doi:10.1016/j.lingua.2014.01.002
  More info

  This experimental study tests the predictions of the Interface Hypothesis (Sorace, 2011, 2012) using two constructions whose appropriateness depends on monitoring discourse information: Clitic Left Dislocation and Fronted Focus. Clitic Left Dislocation relates a dislocated and clitic-doubled object to an antecedent activated in previous discourse, while Fronted Focus does not relate the fronted constituent to a discourse antecedent. The Interface Hypothesis argues that speakers in language contact situations experience difficulties when they have to integrate syntactic with discourse information. We tested four groups of native speakers on these constructions: Spanish monolinguals, bilinguals with more than 7 years residence in the US, intermediate and advanced proficiency heritage speakers. Our findings suggest that attrition has not set in the adult L2 bilingual speakers, and that the heritage speakers perform similarly to the monolingual and the adult sequential bilingual natives.
• Leal, T., Rothman, J., & Slabakova, R. (2014). A rare structure at the syntax-discourse interface: Heritage and spanish-dominant native speakers weigh in. Language Acquisition, 21(4). doi:10.1080/10489223.2014.892946
  More info

  The present study examines knowledge of the discourse-appropriateness of Clitic Right Dislocation (CLRD) in a population of Heritage (HS) and Spanish-dominant Native Speakers in order to test the predictions of the Interface Hypothesis (IH; Sorace 2011). The IH predicts that speakers in language contact situations will experience difficulties with integrating information involving the interface of syntax and discourse modules. CLRD relates a dislocated constituent to a discourse antecedent, requiring integration of syntax and pragmatics. Results from an acceptability judgment task did not support the predictions of the IH. No statistical differences between the HSs’ performance and that of L1-dominant native speakers were evidenced when participants were presented with an offline task. Thus, our study did not find any evidence of “incomplete acquisition” (Montrul 2008) as it pertains to this specific linguistic structure.

Proceedings Publications

• Dekydtspotter, L., Miller, A. K., Gilbert, C., Iverson, M., Leal, T., & Swanson, K. (2019). An Electrophysiological Investigation of Domain-Specific Procedures in (Nonnative) French. In 2017 Second Language Research Forum.
• Dekydtspotter, L., Miller, A. K., Gilbert, C., Iverson, M., Swanson, K., Leal, T., & Innis, I. (2018). An ERP investigation of domain-specificity: Clause-edge recursion in native and non-native French. In Proceedings of the 42nd annual Boston University Conference on Language Development.
• Dekydtspotter, L., Gilbert, C., Miller, K., Iverson, M., Leal, T., & Innis, I. (2017). ERP Correlates of Cyclic Computations: Anaphora in Native and L2 French. In Proceedings of the 41st annual Boston University Conference on Language Development..
• Leal, T., Slabakova, R., Ivanov, I., & Tryzna, M. (2016). Uninterpretable features in L2A again: Interrogatives in the L2 English of Kuwaiti Arabic speakers. In Proceedings of the 13th generative approaches to second language acquisition conference (GASLA 2015).

Reviews

• Leal, T. (2022. Psycholinguistic Approaches to Production and Comprehension in Bilingual Adults and Children, edited by Leigh Fernandez, Kalliopi Katsika, Maialen Iraola Azpiroz and Shanley E. M. Allen(pp 1 - 9).
• Leal, T. (2016. Tiffany Judy and Silvia Perpiñán: The acquisition of Spanish in understudied language pairings(pp 239--242).