It is often assumed that heritage language learners (HLLs) speak better than they write-by themselves and by educators alike. This article draws on data from writing and oral proficiency ratings plus selfevaluations of 35 Spanish HLLs to investigate: (i) whether Spanish HLLs actually tend to receive higher ratings in speaking than in writing; (ii) if this is the case, how large the distance in proficiency is; and (iii) to what extent HLLs are accurate in identifying their better modality. Results do show higher ratings in speaking on average, but to a degree that is smaller than might be expected: ratings indicate that subjects performed the same functions in both modalities even when one of the two was rated higher than the other. Additionally, fewer than half the subjects were able to accurately evaluate whether or not they are better at speaking or writing. Implications for instruction are also discussed.
This article is an investigation and analysis of the word same. It focuses first on the ambiguous nature of same, in that the same x can be (i) one entity seen on different occasions, or (ii) two different entities of the same kind. I discuss the empirical differences associated with these two readings, and hypothesize that they can be explained in terms of the formal semantic concepts of extension and intension: Reading (i) is extensional while reading (ii) is intensional (a “kind of” reading). In addition, I suggest that the two readings do not mean that there are two completely different meanings to same, but rather that the reading of same is determined by context and the nouns being modified by it; indeed, this polysemy exists largely below the speaker’s conscious awareness. I then provide a formal representation of the syntax and semantics of same as a two-place predicate. I show that when either of the two arguments we expect to be obligatory is not overt, it is because same has undergone a derivation to license this null argument—one derivation type in extensional cases of same, and a different derivation in intensional cases.
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