Lexical conditions on syntactic knowledge: auxiliary selection in native and non-native grammars of Italian

The theoretical focus is on the linguistic intuitions of native and non-native speakers of Italian about a number of grammatical phenomena related to the choice between the auxiliaries ESSERE ('be') and AVERE ('have') with non-transitive (unaccusative and unergative) verbs. It is argued that a purely syntactic account of unaccusativity is insufficient to capture the variation exhibited by these verbs. In particular, it is claimed that the unmarked selection of ESSERE with unaccusatives and of AVERE with unergatives in the present perfect tense is sensitive not only to a hierarchy of syntactic configurations (as assumed by the Government-Binding version of the Unaccusativity Hypothesis) but also to lexical hierarchies that subdivide the range of unaccusative and unergative verbs along semantic dimensions. Such hierarchies distinguish 'core', or prototypical, types of verbs from peripheral ones , and are consistent with the historical evolution of auxiliaries in Romance. However, auxiliary selection in syntactically marked 'restructuring' constructions, induced by certain Raising and Control verbs, is not sensitive to these semantic dimensions. It was predicted that the interaction between syntactic and semantic constraints would give rise to systematic variability in native speakers' linguistic intuitions, manifested in consistent and determinate acceptability judgments on core types of verbs, and variable or indeterminate judgments on peripheral types of verbs. It was also predicted that non-natives would differ from natives in terms of the extent to which indeterminate judgments penetrated from the periphery to the core.Methodologically, this study represents the first application of magnitude estimation techniques to the elicitation of linguistic acceptability judgments. Magnitude estimation makes it possible to measure variability in acceptability judgments directly, which has the advantage of producing interval scales that can then be properly analysed by parametric statistics. Other ranking elicitation procedures produce only ordinal measurements. A systematic comparison between the judgments obtained by means of magnitude estimation and those obtained by means of a cardsorting ranking procedure indicates that both native and non-native speakers are able to judge acceptability via magnitude estimation with at least as much delicacy as via card-sorting. In some cases, magnitude estimation produces finer-grained distinctions of unacceptability, and reveals differences between native and near-natives which are not reproduced in the card-sorting task.A series of experiments was conducted addressing the three issues of (a) variability in native intuitions, (b) progressive development of non-native knowledge, and (c) ultimate attainment at near-native competence levels. Acceptability judgments were collected from Italian native speakers and English-speaking learners of Italian at four proficiency levels (beginner, intermediate, advanced, near-native). A group of French near-native speakers of Italian was also tested for the purpose of comparison with the English near-natives.Tnis study has both a theoretical and a methodological dimension. Theoretically, it is concerned with variation and indeterminacy in linguistic acceptability judgments. Methodologically, it involves the application of a rigorous procedure for the elicitation of judgment data that is sensitive to informants' variable or indeterminate intuitions.The results show that (a) the judgments of native Italians are sensitive to different lexical-semantic hierarchies of unaccusative and unergative verbs: judgments on the basic syntactic reflexes of the unergative/unaccusative distinction (auxiliary selection and ne-cliticization) exhibit more or less determinacy depending on the semantic characterization of individual verbs: however, native speakers discriminate categorically between possible and impossible, obligatory and optional auxiliary change under restructuring, irrespective of the semantics of the inducing verb; (b) nonnative judgments reflect a difference in learnability between lexical-semantic and purely syntactic distinctions. Lexical-semantic hierarchies affect the development and ultimate shape of non-native grammars, in that interlanguage representations for core lexical classes are constructed earlier than those for peripheral classes, with non-native acceptability values gradually approximating the native values. Peripheral restructuring constructions, however, never become determinate in the interlanguage grammars of English learners, which are incomplete in this respect even at the nearnative level. In contrast, French near-native speakers of Italian show evidence of having constructed determinate, but divergent representations of these syntactic phenomena. It is argued that such differences in ultimate attainment reflect differences in the overall representations of unaccusativity in French and English

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This study investigates the acquisition of the unaccusative-unergative distinction in L2 Japanese by English learners. The aim is to establish whether learners of Japanese are sensitive to the lexicalsemantic characteristics of verbs in similar ways as learners of Romance languages who were found to follow the Split Intransitivity Hierarch

Exploring the role of cognitive control in syntactic processing

In this paper, we explore the role of cognition in bilingual syntactic processing by employing a structural priming paradigm. A group of Norwegian-English bilingual children and an age-matched group of Norwegian monolingual children were tested in a priming task that included both a within-language and a between-language priming condition. Results show that the priming effect between-language was not significantly smaller than the effect within-language. We argue that this is because language control mechanisms do not affect the access to the shared grammar. In addition, we investigate the interaction between the children’s performance in the priming task and in a non-linguistic cognitive task and find that the two measures are not correlated; however, we find a correlation between the cognitive task and language control, which we measured by counting the number of trials produced in the non-target language. Our findings suggest that language control and domain-general executive control overlap only partially

Contraintes sémantiques sur la syntaxe : l’acquisition de l’inaccusativité en italien L2

Cette étude traite de l’acquisition, en italien L2 par des apprenants de langue maternelle anglaise, de deux propriétés grammaticales qui distinguent les verbes inaccusatifs des verbes intransitifs en italien : le choix des auxiliaires ESSERE (être) et AVERE (avoir) dans les temps composés, et la distribution syntaxique du NE-quantitatif. Les données présentées montrent que ces deux propriétés sont acquises d’une façon graduelle et selon des parcours de développement qui se révèlent sensibles à des hiérarchies verbales, définies en termes sémantiques, à l’intérieur des classes des verbes inaccusatifs et inergatifs. Les résultats sont expliqués en postulant que l’acquisition de la syntaxe de l’inaccusativité dépend crucialement de l’intériorisation des règles de correspondance entre la structure conceptuelle des verbes intransitifs et leur structure argumentale. Ceci démontre le lien étroit entre connaissance lexicale et connaissance syntaxique dans l’acquisition l’une langue.This study deals with the acquisition of unaccusativity in Italian L2 by English-speaking learners, and focuses on two of the most important grammatical properties that distinguish unergative and unaccusative verbs : the choice of auxiliary ESSERE (be) and AVERE (have) in compound tenses, and the distribution of NE-cliticization. The data presented indicate that both properties are acquired gradually and according to developmental paths which are sensitive to lexico-semantic hierarchies that subdivide the classes of unergative and unaccusative verbs. It is argued that the acquisition of the syntax of unaccusativity crucially depends on the internalization of the linking rules that relate the conceptual structure underlying intransitive verbs and their argument structure : lexical knowledge and syntactic knowledge are therefore intimately connected in language acquisition

Selectivity in L1 Attrition: Differential Object Marking in Spanish Near-Native Speakers of English

Previous research has shown L1 attrition to be restricted to structures at the interfaces between syntax and pragmatics, but not to occur with syntactic properties that do not involve such interfaces (‘Interface Hypothesis’, Sorace and Filiaci in Anaphora resolution in near-native speakers of Italian. Second Lang Res 22: 339–368, 2006). The present study tested possible L1 attrition effects on a syntax-semantics interface structure [Differential Object Marking (DOM) using the Spanish personal preposition] as well as the effects of recent L1 re-exposure on the potential attrition of these structures, using offline and eye-tracking measures. Participants included a group of native Spanish speakers experiencing attrition (‘attriters’), a second group of attriters exposed exclusively to Spanish before they were tested, and a control group of Spanish monolinguals. The eye-tracking results showed very early sensitivity to DOM violations, which was of an equal magnitude across all groups. The off-line results also showed an equal sensitivity across groups. These results reveal that structures involving ‘internal’ interfaces like the DOM do not undergo attrition either at the processing or representational level

Supporting bilingualism in vulnerable populations

Although bilingualism is generally appraised and supported by society, many more doubts arise when it comes to children suffering from neurodevelopmental disorders. The concern that the exposure to two languages might deteriorate the linguistic development of children, together with the advice to simplify the linguistic environment and to adopt a monolingual approach, leads many families to abandon their home language and sacrifice bilingualism. Scientific research, however, has shown that this fear is ungrounded and that children with developmental disorders can become successful bilingual speakers, if they are provided with appropriate linguistic exposure. The aim of this paper is that of providing a state-of-the-art of the literature on this topic, by reviewing studies conducted on the interaction between bilingualism and neurodevelopmental disorders, focusing in particular on the interaction between bilingualism and developmental language disorder (DLD), developmental dyslexia and autism spectrum disorder. We discuss issues related to the early identification of DLD and dyslexia among bilinguals and we report the results of studies showing that bilingualism does not exacerbate the difficulties of children with developmental disorders, but on the contrary it can be beneficial for them, at the cognitive, linguistic and socio-cultural level. Finally, we provide some recommendations for parents, educators and practitioners, focusing on the importance of supporting the family language in all of its components, including literacy, for a complete and harmonic bilingual growth