Bilingualism effects in Basque Subject Pronoun Expression

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 523-560 ◽  
Author(s):  
Itxaso Rodríguez-Ordóñez ◽  
Lorena Sainzmaza-Lecanda
Keyword(s):  
Transfer Effects ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Subject Pronoun ◽  
Interface Hypothesis ◽  
Spanish Bilinguals

Abstract The Interface Hypothesis (IH) (Sorace, 2011; Sorace & Filiaci, 2006; Sorace & Serratrice, 2009) proposes that structures involving an interface between syntax and other modules are less likely to be fully acquired. Whereas some studies have found evidence in favor of the IH (Michnowicz, 2015), others have reported that adult 2L1 and L2 speakers of differing proficiencies are equally efficient in acquiring the pragmatic constraints conditioning Subject Pronoun Expression (SPE) (Carvalho & Bessett, 2015; Prada-Pérez, 2015). In light of these contradictory results, this study tests the IH by exploring the acquisition of Basque SPE using naturally-occurring speech from 25 Basque-Spanish bilinguals. Results show that Basque L2-learners are responsive to discourse-pragmatic constraints. In fact, L2-Basque SPE is conditioned by a more complex set of constraints than native Basque SPE, for which we propose that L2 SPE results from a process of complexification (Dahl, 2004), triggered by transfer effects from Spanish.

scholarly journals ONLINE PRONOUN RESOLUTION IN L2 DISCOURSE: L1 Influence and General Learner Effects

2008 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 333-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah Roberts ◽  
Marianne Gullberg ◽  
Peter Indefrey
Keyword(s):  
First Language ◽  
Pronoun Resolution ◽  
Subject Pronouns ◽  
Online Processing ◽  
L2 Processing ◽  
Overt Pronouns ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
L1 Influence ◽  
Final Interpretation ◽  
Subject Pronoun

This study investigates whether advanced second language (L2) learners of a nonnull subject language (Dutch) are influenced by their null subject first language (L1) (Turkish) in their offline and online resolution of subject pronouns in L2 discourse. To tease apart potential L1 effects from possible general L2 processing effects, we also tested a group of German L2 learners of Dutch who were predicted to perform like the native Dutch speakers. The two L2 groups differed in their offline interpretations of subject pronouns. The Turkish L2 learners exhibited a L1 influence, because approximately half the time they interpreted Dutch subject pronouns as they would overt pronouns in Turkish, whereas the German L2 learners performed like the Dutch controls, interpreting pronouns as coreferential with the current discourse topic. This L1 effect was not in evidence in eye-tracking data, however. Instead, the L2 learners patterned together, showing an online processing disadvantage when two potential antecedents for the pronoun were grammatically available in the discourse. This processing disadvantage was in evidence irrespective of the properties of the learners' L1 or their final interpretation of the pronoun. Therefore, the results of this study indicate both an effect of the L1 on the L2 in offline resolution and a general L2 processing effect in online subject pronoun resolution.

Acquiring the syntactic constraints on auxiliary change under restructuring in L2 Italian

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 413-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tihana Kraš
Keyword(s):  
Magnitude Estimation ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Original Version ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Syntactic Constraints ◽  
Interface Hypothesis ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Incomplete Acquisition

This paper reports the findings of an experiment into the syntactic constraints on auxiliary change under restructuring in Italian L2 grammars which are possibly at the end state. Its aim is to test the prediction of the original version of the Interface Hypothesis that narrow syntactic properties are fully acquirable in the L2. In Italian restructuring constructions with embedded unaccusatives, the change of auxiliary from avere (‘have’) to essere (‘be’) is either optional or obligatory depending on clitic presence and placement. A group of highly proficient L1 Croatian adult L2 learners of Italian and a group of adult Italian native speakers used Magnitude Estimation to express their auxiliary preferences in restructuring constructions with embedded unaccusatives. The L2 learners were shown not to know when auxiliary change is optional and when obligatory. Such findings are not consistent with the version of the Interface Hypothesis tested. Possible reasons for the incomplete acquisition of the phenomenon under scrutiny are discussed in the paper.

THE ROLE OF SEMANTIC TRANSFER IN CLITIC DROP AMONG SIMULTANEOUS AND SEQUENTIAL CHINESE-SPANISH BILINGUALS

2012 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandro Cuza ◽  
Ana Teresa Pérez-Leroux ◽  
Liliana Sánchez
Keyword(s):  
First Language ◽  
Null Distribution ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Transfer Effects ◽  
Value Judgment ◽  
Null Objects ◽  
Null Argument ◽  
Semantic Transfer ◽  
Spanish Bilinguals

This study examines the acquisition of the featural constraints on clitic and null distribution in Spanish among simultaneous and sequential Chinese-Spanish bilinguals from Peru. A truth value judgment task targeted the referential meaning of null objects in a negation context. Objects were elicited via two clitic elicitation tasks that targeted anaphoric contexts and left-dislocated topics. An acceptability task tested sensitivity to left-dislocated object drop. Although simultaneous bilinguals were mostly undistinguishable from monolinguals, the late learners differed from both of these groups across tasks. Age of arrival led to different outcomes, with late learners showing more deficits than the child learners. Late learners avoided using clitics and relied on lexical and null objects. Residual transfer effects were observed among the child learners in the form of insensitivity to the features that serve as the basis for null argument identification and clitic deficits in production. It is also argued that transfer persists despite early and intense exposure to the second language in a natural environment because of the existence of an unmarked argument identification option in the first language.

scholarly journals Interpretação de pronomes em português L2: efeitos de transferência?

2018 ◽  
pp. 83-97
Author(s):  
Alexandra Fiéis ◽  
Ana Madeira
Keyword(s):  
Transfer Effects ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Developmental Effect ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
European Portuguese ◽  
Reflexive Pronouns ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Full Knowledge ◽  
Truth Value ◽  
Value Judgement

This study investigates how knowledge of the interpretative properties of strong object pronouns develops in L2 European Portuguese. We focus on the anaphor si, which, in biclausal domains, may take either a local or a long-distance antecedent. Previous studies have shown that L2 learners show delays in the acquisition of non-reflexive pronouns in monoclausal domains (Kim et al 2014), but not of anaphors; however, knowledge of the locality constraints on anaphors in biclausal sentences has been shown to exhibit transfer effects and develop late (Domínguez et al 2012). In this study we investigate whether the learners’ L1 influences the development of the interpretative properties of pronouns by considering two groups of learners whose L1s differ regarding long-distance binding: Spanish, where it is disallowed (Otero 1999), and Italian, where, according to Napoli (1979), it is allowed. Moreover, we investigate whether learners attain full knowledge of these properties, and, if so, whether development of this knowledge is delayed, by comparing learners at different proficiency levels (intermediate and advanced). Results of two truth-value judgement tasks indicate the presence of L1 effects in learners’ interpretation of non-reflexive pronouns, but not of si in biclausal contexts, where a local interpretation is preferred over a long-distance one. Moreover, a comparison between the intermediate and the advanced groups reveals a developmental effect in the Spanish group (but not in the Italian group), indicating that the interpretative properties of si may be fully acquired, albeit subject to delays.

scholarly journals A Longitudinal Study in the L2 Acquisition of the French TAM System

Languages ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 42
Author(s):  
Dalila Ayoun
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Repeated Exposure ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Main Research ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Interface Hypothesis ◽  
L1 English

Empirical studies investigating the second language (L2) acquisition of tense, aspect, mood/modality (TAM) systems offer an enlightening window into L2 learners’ linguistic competence because they involve all areas of a language, making them ideal testing grounds for the Interface hypothesis and ultimately whether adult learners may achieve a native-like TAM system. This longitudinal study used a pre-test, repeated exposure, delayed post-test design guided by a main research question—does the L2 learners’ interlanguage display contrasts and systematicity? Sixteen L2 French learners—L1 English (n = 9), HL French (n = 4), and HL Spanish (n = 3) speakers enrolled in a fourth-year college Film and Fiction class read five novels that were extensively discussed in class and used as essay topics, thus providing controlled, repeated exposure to oral and written input over a semester. Qualitative and quantitative findings reveal a highly accurate production of several forms, but with an over-reliance on the indicative present. The learners’ TAM system appears to be contrasted and varied, but unbalanced. Findings regarding the Interface hypothesis are mixed.

Dominant language transfer in adult second language learners and heritage speakers

2010 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 293-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvina Montrul
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Language Transfer ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Transfer Effects ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Dominant Language ◽  
L2 Learners

The effects of language transfer have been amply documented in second language (L2) acquisition and, to a lesser extent, in the language contact/loss literature (Cook, 2003). In both cases, the stronger and often dominant language encroaches into the structure of the less dominant language in systematic ways. But are transfer effects in these two situations comparable: is first language (L1) influence in adult L2 learners similar to L2 influence in the L1 of early bilinguals? The current study addresses this question by investigating knowledge of Spanish clitics, clitic left dislocations, and differential object marking (DOM) in 72 L2 learners and 67 Spanish heritage speakers. The contact language, English, is assumed to not instantiate these syntactic properties. Results of an oral production task and a written acceptability judgment task indicated overall advantages for the heritage speakers in some areas, but similar effects of transfer from English in the two groups. Transfer effects were less pronounced with core aspects of grammar (syntax proper in the case of clitics) than with aspects of grammar that lie at the interfaces of syntax and semantics/pragmatics, as in the case of clitic left dislocations and DOM. These findings have implications for current views on the vulnerability of certain linguistic interfaces in language development (Sorace, 2004; Serratrice et al., 2004; Tsimpli and Sorace, 2006; White, 2009) and for theories that stress the role of age in L2 acquisition and permanent transfer effects.

scholarly journals An empirical L2 perspective on possessives: German/Norwegian

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anneliese Pauline Pitz ◽  
Oliver Bott ◽  
Torgrim Solstad ◽  
Robin Hörnig ◽  
Bergljot Behrens ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Structural Constraints ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Transfer Effects ◽  
Stem Form ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Complex Procedure

The present paper reports on two empirical studies concerning the acquisition of possessive systems by L2 learners of Norwegian and German respectively. The first study investigates comprehension and production in written translation while the second study is a set of offline experiments testing the interpretation of possessives by both native speakers and German learners of Norwegian. Norwegian distinguishes between reflexive and irreflexive possessives, while German does not. The reflexive stem form si* is phonologically similar to German sein*, but may correspond to ihr*, a feminine or plural possessor, as well. These differences make the acquisition of Norwegian and of German as a foreign language a complex procedure of restructuring both at the phonological and the grammatical level. Results of the study indicate that the only partly overlapping forms and structural constraints on possessives in the two languages are cognitively demanding in L2 acquisition and subject to transfer effects.

scholarly journals Charge Transfer Effects in Naturally Occurring van der Waals Heterostructures (PbSe)1.16(TiSe2)m ( m=1 , 2)

2018 ◽  
Vol 120 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Q. Yao ◽  
D. W. Shen ◽  
C. H. P. Wen ◽  
C. Q. Hua ◽  
L. Q. Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Charge Transfer ◽  
Van Der Waals ◽  
Transfer Effects ◽  
Van Der Waals Heterostructures ◽  
Naturally Occurring

L2 acquisition of Bulgarian clitic doubling: A test case for the Interface Hypothesis

2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 345-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan P. Ivanov
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Test Case ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Clitic Doubling ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Interface Hypothesis ◽  
Discourse Interface

The purpose of this study is to expand the testing ground of the Interface Hypothesis (Sorace, 2006) by investigating the degree to which second language (L2) learners of Bulgarian with English as their first language (L1) had acquired the pragmatic function of clitic doubling as a topicality marker. Advanced and intermediate L2 speakers of Bulgarian, as well as a control group of Bulgarian native speakers, participated in the experiment. The experimental materials included a proficiency test and a pragmatic felicity task. The results showed that the intermediate participants did not differentiate between the felicitous and the infelicitous options in the pragmatic felicity task in a target-like manner as their responses either did not exhibit a statistically significant difference or favored the response closest to the L1. However, the advanced L2 learners had successfully acquired the pragmatic meaning of clitic doubling in Bulgarian and performed in a native-like manner. The study highlights the fact that successful learning at the syntax–discourse interface cannot be excluded, and more research – exploring as many interface conditions as possible – needs to be carried out in order to validate the Interface Hypothesis as a legitimate constraint that permanently hinders native-like performance.

scholarly journals The L2 Acquisition of French Interrogatives: Pragmatic Inferences in Clefted wh-Questions

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 165
Author(s):  
Emilie Destruel ◽  
Bryan Donaldson
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Intermediate Level ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Wh Questions ◽  
Interface Hypothesis ◽  
Discourse Interface ◽  
Incomplete Acquisition

The present study aims to elaborate on the understanding of the second language (L2) acquisition of French interrogatives by focusing on clefted (subject) wh-questions, structures that are largely absent in prior L2 literature. Our research question addresses how L2 learners of French understand two specific properties associated with these interrogatives: existence and exhaustivity. Using two rating tasks, we examined whether a total of 48 L2 learners converge towards the native norm for these properties, which occur at the syntax-discourse interface and may therefore be vulnerable to incomplete acquisition, following the Interface Hypothesis. Our findings suggest that L2 learners at the intermediate level acquire an understanding of the existential inference before an understanding of exhaustivity.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document