Does empirical data from bilingual and native Spanish corpora meet linguistic theory? The role of discourse context in variation of subject expression

Author:

García-Alcaraz Estela1,Bel Aurora2

Affiliation:

1. Modern Languages and Literatures , University of Ottawa , Ottawa , Canada

2. Translation and Language Sciences , Pompeu Fabra University , Barcelona , Spain

Abstract

Abstract The goal of this study is to shed light on how empirical data on the discourse constraints of null and overt third person subject pronouns in L1 and bilingual Spanish meet linguistic theory. A (semi)spontaneous production task was administered to 34 Moroccan Arabic (MA)/Spanish early sequential bilinguals and 30 L1 Spanish controls. All 3rd person subject positions were coded: (1) morphosyntactic form (null pronoun vs. overt pronoun); (2) discourse function ([-Topic Shift] vs. [+Topic Shift]); (3) sentence relation (intrasentential vs. intersentential); (4) clause order within intrasentential contexts (main-subordinate vs. subordinate-main); and (5) access to the antecedent (clear vs. ambiguous antecedent). The results reveal general patterns of use in both L1 and bilingual Spanish: null pronouns express topic maintenance both in inter- and intrasentential contexts (both clause orders) and overt pronouns, especially in intersentential contexts, are generally used for topic change. However, additional analyses provide evidence that null pronouns in L1, but not in bilingual Spanish, are often used in change of reference contexts where the antecedent is not ambiguous. This reveals patterns that have gone unreported by most previous descriptive and theoretical studies. Finally, a higher use of ambiguous null pronouns is attested among bilingual speakers, which suggests a lower control of the mechanisms by which reference is established in discourse and supports, to some extent, the predictions derived from the Interface Hypothesis.

Publisher

Walter de Gruyter GmbH

Subject

Linguistics and Language,Language and Linguistics

Reference44 articles.

1. Alonso-Ovalle, Luis, Susana Fernández-Solera, Lyn Frazier & Charles Clifton. 2002. Null vs. overt pronouns and the topic-focus articulation in Spanish. Rivista di Linguistica 14. 151–169.

2. Ariel, Mira. 1990. Accessing noun phrase antecedents. London: Routledge.

3. Bel, Aurora. 2013. BCN-L2 Spanish corpus (Moroccan Arabic/Berber-Spanish. Talkbank database. http://talkbank.org/access/SLABank/Spanish/BCN.html.

4. Bel, Aurora & Milagros Albert. 2016. The development of referential choice in Spanish narratives among school-age children and adolescents. In Joan Perera, Melina Aparici, Elisa Rosado & Naymé Salas (eds.), Written and spoken language development across the lifespan, 251–269. Frankfurt: Springer.

5. Bel, Aurora & Estela García-Alcaraz. 2015. Subjects in the L2 Spanish of Moroccan Arabic speakers: Evidence from bilingual and second language learners. In Tiffany Judy & Silvia Perpiñán (eds.), The acquisition of Spanish as a second language: Data from understudied languages pairings, 201–232. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

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