When discourse met null subjects

In this paper a novel view of the distribution of null subjects in Spanish is explored in which the discourse category of the antecedent of pro is crucially paid attention to. Implementing Frascarelli’s (2007) work, I propose that the relevant interpretative condition to meet is for the null subject to be coreferential with an Aboutness-Shift Topic, which must be either an explicit one or a null (i.e. silent) double in the local domain where pro occurs. When silent, this antecedent can refer back to any type of discourse category in a previous clause. This implies an update of the information provided in the sentence containing pro. The analysis is supported by an experiment run among native speakers of Spanish.En este artículo se explora un novedoso modo de ver la distribución de sujetos nulos en español, basado en la categoría discursiva que tiene el antecedente de pro. Implementando el trabajo de Frascarelli (2007), propongo que la condición interpretativa que indispensablemente debe cumplir un sujeto nulo es el que sea correferente con un Tópico Oracional, el cual debe aparecer explícitamente o tener un doble nulo (o mudo) en el dominio local donde se encuentra pro. Cuando este antecedente es mudo, puede éste referirse cualquier tipo de categoría discursiva en la ración precedente. Esto implica una actualización de la información que se da en la oración donde aparece pro. El análisis presentado se apoya en un experimento llevado a cabo entre hablantes nativos de español

When reduced input leads to delayed acquisition: a study on the acquisition of clitic placement by Portuguese heritage speakers

This article examines the competence of heritage speakers of Portuguese living in Germany with respect to clitic placement in Portuguese by comparing their performance with that of monolingual speakers of the same age (7–15 years of age) in a test designed to elicit oral production data. The results of the study indicate that the heritage speakers go through stages in the acquisition of clitic placement that are similar to those of monolingual acquirers even though they take longer to attain the target grammar

Complexity as L2-difficulty : implications for syntactic change

Recent work has cast doubt on the idea that all languages are equally complex; however, the notion of syntactic complexity remains underexplored. Taking complexity to equate to difficulty of acquisition for late L2 acquirers, we propose an operationalization of syntactic complexity in terms of uninterpretable features. Trudgill's sociolinguistic typology predicts that sociohistorical situations involving substantial late L2 acquisition should be conducive to simplification, i.e. loss of such features. We sketch a programme for investigating this prediction. In particular, we suggest that the loss of bipartite negation in the history of Low German and other languages indicates that it may be on the right track

The acquisition of postverbal subjects in spanish and its information structure by english-speaking students

El objetivo de esta tesis es investigar la interacción entre orden de palabras y estructura informativa en español. En concreto, este estudio se ha basado en teorías precedentes que tratan sobre la estructura informativa en lenguas que permiten la omisión del pronombre (sujeto) y cómo esto afecta a la adquisición del sujeto posverbal en español con el fin de realizar un estudio descriptivo y experimental sobre este tema. Esta investigación trata sobre la adquisición del sujeto posverbal en hablantes nativos de español (L1) y hablantes de inglés que estudian español como segunda lengua (L2) desde una perspectiva descriptiva y experimental. Para ello, se han utilizado los principales conceptos teóricos que trata la literatura sobre estructura informativa y argumental. Sin embargo, el análisis que se ha llevado a cabo no es enteramente teórico; el marco teórico ha sido necesario para presentar y desarrollar los principales estudios sobre el tema, pero esta tesis se basa en el análisis estadístico y descriptivo de dos tests lingüísticos de carácter experimental. La hipótesis general es que la realización de sujetos posverbales podría estar relacionada con el tipo de foco. En relación a esto, apoyamos lo siguiente: a) la adquisición de la producción y distribución del sujeto en español (omitido/explícito o posverbal) podrían estar relacionadas entre ellas y compartir algunas de las principales propiedades desde un punto de vista sintáctico y discursivo; b) desde una perspectiva evolutiva, las estrategias de sujeto posverbal se pueden considerar una adquisición tardía en el caso de construcciones de foco estrecho; c) desde la perspectiva de la adquisición de segundas lenguas, la existencia de diferencias entre L1 y L2 hablantes de español en cuanto a la aceptabilidad de estructuras de sujeto posverbal es considerablemente relevante como para llevar a cabo un análisis experimental que nos permita desarrollar propuestas didácticas para llevar al aula en el futuro.The aim of this dissertation is to research the interaction between word order and information structure in Spanish. In particular, this study has been developed based on preceding theories that deal with information structure in pro-drop languages and how it affects the acquisition of postverbal subjects in Spanish in order to accomplish a descriptive and experimental research on the interaction between the different levels of analysis. This study concerns the acquisition of postverbal subjects by L1 and L2 English speakers of Spanish from an experimental and descriptive perspective, using the main theoretical concepts assumed in the literature on information structure and argument structure. However, the analysis carried out is not entirely theoretical; the theoretical framework is needed in order to present and develop the main studies on the topic, but this dissertation stands on the statistical and descriptive analysis of two linguistic experimental tests. The general hypothesis is that the realization of postverbal subjects may be sensitive to specific focus types. In line with this, we support that: a) the acquisition of subject production and distribution in Spanish (null/explicit or postverbal subjects) might be related one another and share some of the main properties from a syntax and discourse viewpoint; b) from an evolutionary perspective, postverbal subject strategies can be considered as a late acquisition for narrow focus constructions; c) from a second language acquisition perspective, the existence of differences between L1 and L2 speakers of Spanish in relation to the acceptance of postverbal subject structures is relevant enough to carry out an experimental analysis that allows us to develop some didactic proposals for the classroom in the future

L2 Influence on L1 : Chinese subject realisation in Chinese-English bilinguals

This study aims to investigate the influence of the second language (L2) on the use of the first language (L1) in late bilinguals within an L1 dominant environment. Cross-linguistic influence (Kellerman & Smith, 1986) has been usually studied in the forward direction: how bilinguals’ L1 influences the acquisition and use of their L2. The other direction (i.e., the influence of L2 on L1), on the other hand, has not been sufficiently investigated. The current study looks at Chinese-speaking learners who acquire their L2 English through instruction in an L1 dominant environment. It does so by examining ‘subject realisation’, an area where Chinese and English exhibit substantial typological contrasts since Chinese allows both overt and null arguments under certain discourse-pragmatic conditions, whereas subjects in English are, under most circumstances, obligatorily expressed (Huang, 1984).. It is then hypothesized that long-time learning and regularly using English as L2 would increase the use of overt subjects realised in the bilingual’s first language, i.e., Chinese, with the consequent use of fewer null subjects in their L1. In addition, following Grosjean (1998), the interaction between the bilingual’s two languages is expected to be stronger when bilinguals produce language in the so called ‘bilingual mode’, i.e., when both languages are highly activated, than in a ‘monolingual mode’, i.e., when only one language is predominately activated. Such ‘language mode’ factor leads naturally to a futher hypothesis: fewer null subjects are realised in speech produced by Chinese-English bilinguals within a bilingual mode compared to monolingual mode

Analyse des clitiques du serbo-croate dans le cadre du programme minimaliste

Les clitiques du serbo-croate doivent toujours être placés en respectant des règles spécifiques. Dans le cas contraire, les phrases ne sont pas convenables et la dérivation échoue. Lors de la formulation des phrases et de l’insertion des clitiques dans celles-ci, il faut respecter les règles requises. Malgré les restrictions placées par ces règles, selon mes recherches, je propose que les clitiques en serbo-croate sont beaucoup plus simples comparativement à ce qui a été suggéré par d’autres chercheurs. La simplicité étant une des clés de la langue serbo-croate. Mon objectif était d’étudier, dans le cadre du programme minimaliste, la position que les clitiques du serbo-croate occupent au sein de la phrase. Plus particulièrement, j’ai mis l’accent sera mis sur la position que ces éléments occupent par rapport à un syntagme nominal (SN) placé en tête de phrase. En effet, quoique l’analyse en termes de deuxième position des clitiques du Serbo-croate soit en général acceptée par les chercheurs, les propositions concernant la définition de leur hôte diffèrent grandement. D’où mon intérêt envers la recherche empirique décrite dans cette thèse. Cette recherche, qui à ma connaissance sera la première en son genre, pourrait lever le voile sur les clitiques du croate (un dialecte du serbo-croate) et la position que ces éléments occupent par rapport aux autres éléments syntaxiques d’un énoncé. Dans ma thèse, j’ai proposé que le comportement des clitiques auxiliaires, phrastiques et pronominaux en serbo-croate peut être expliqué avec facilité dans le cadre du programme minimaliste. Si l’on prend en considération que cette langue fait partie de celles dont le trait EPP des clitiques auxiliaires, phrastiques et pronominaux doit être vérifié et éliminé de la dérivation pour la convergence phrastique, on peut alors comprendre pourquoi la réalisation desdits clitiques dans la position initiale de la phrase n’est jamais observable dans la production langagière des locuteurs natif de cette langue