One of the main objectives of the Language Sciences (Polinsky) Lab is to study variation in natural languages with a particular emphasis on the language of bilingual populations. With that general objective in mind, we have pursued several interrelated goals with respect to Spanish. On the data collection side, the project led to the creation of an innovative media corpus representing production by native speakers and heritage speakers of Spanish. With respect to experimental testing of native speakers, second-language learners and heritage speakers, the project has led to an ongoing four-way comparison of native speakers of Peninsular Spanish, native speakers of Latin American Spanish, Heritage Latin American Spanish speakers, and L2 learners of Spanish.
