Introduction to the special issue on Hispanic linguistics in Canada

Linguistics in Canada is a vibrant, flourishing field. In the Canadian research context, the social relevance of the formal study of languages and linguistics is well-understood. The Canadian Linguistics Association and the Canadian Journal of Linguistics have a strong tradition of linking the theoretical studies of language with the native languages of Canada and those of regional and immigrant groups.

This issue on Hispanic linguistics is both relevant and timely. Beyond the traditional historical ties between Canada and Latin America, the demographic presence of Spanish speakers in Canada is changing. The last few decades have seen the arrival of successive diasporas of immigrant groups from different Latin American countries, at times tied to political conflict and economic changes, at times the result of active Canadian immigration policies and family reunifications. Recent census data show that the number of residents who declare Spanish as their mother tongue is increasing. The 2006 census, recently released by Statistics Canada, reports that 345,345 inhabitants (i.e., 1.1% of the country's population) have Spanish as their mother tongue (Statistics Canada 2006). These speakers are unevenly distributed across the country. In the two most populated provinces, Ontario and Quebec, 1.3% and 1.5% of residents, respectively, report Spanish as their mother tongue (Statistics Canada 2006). In Ontario, Spanish has become the fifth most frequent mother tongue, after English, French, Chinese, and Italian (Ministry of Finance 2008).

Within the academic context, Canada has been a pioneer in research into second-language acquisition and learning. Names such as Patsy Lightbown, Nina Spada, Merrill Swain, Jim Cummins, Fred Genesee, amongmany others, are known internationally by anyonewho is interested in bilingualismand second language acquisition. In the 1980s, within this rich research context, the framework of generative grammar was first applied to the field of second-language acquisition. Among the leading researchers in Canada to follow this path were Lydia White at McGill and Juana Liceras, now at the University of Ottawa. Both of these scholars have supported the training of generations of scholars who have focused on the acquisition of Spanish and who have helped define the field. At the same time, many of the language departments in Canada, which originally specialized only in literature, have now expanded their offerings to include Hispanic Linguistics. While a doctoral specialization in Spanish Linguistics was initially only available at the University of Toronto, it is now possible to obtain a Ph.D. in Hispanic Studies or Spanish, with a concentration in Linguistics, at Université Laval, the University of Ottawa, and the University of Western Ontario. Many other departments are hiring or have hired specialists in Spanish linguistics, including the University of British Columbia, York University, Dalhousie University, Université de Montréal, and the University of Windsor.

The increased level of research activity is reflected in the organization of conferences. The Hispanic Linguistics Symposium has been organized in Canada on three occasions: at McGill in 1998, at the University of Western Ontario in 2006, and at Université Laval in 2008. It is scheduled to take place at the University of Alberta in 2011. The Conference on Laboratory Approaches to Spanish Phonology was held in Toronto in 2007. In 2005,David Heap of the University of Western Ontario organized a joint session of the Canadian Linguistic Association and the Canadian Association of Hispanists at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, which took place at the University of Western Ontario. The idea for this special edition of CJL originated in that joint session, and all the articles began as papers presented there. Although they cannot do justice to the breadth of work carried out in Canada, we hope they will provide a basis for judging the quality and importance of some of the research carried out in this country.

The article by Antonia Androutsopoulou, Manuel Español-Echevarría, and Philippe Prévost examines quantifiers in the interlanguage grammars of French L1 learners of Spanish. Unlike French, Spanish favours quantifiers that agree in number with the head noun (Spanish bastantes libros 'enough books' vs...