Clitic-doubled left dislocation and focus fronting in L2 Spanish: A case of successful acquisition at the syntax–discourse interface

This experimental study tests the Interface Hypothesis by looking into processes at the syntax–discourse interface, teasing apart acquisition of syntactic, semantic and discourse knowledge. Adopting López’s (2009) pragmatic features [±a(naphor)] and [±c(ontrast)], which in combination account for the constructions of dislocation and fronting, we tested clitic left dislocation and fronted focus in the comprehension of English native speakers learning Spanish. Furthermore, we tested knowledge of an additional semantic property: the relationship between the discourse anaphor and the antecedent in clitic left dislocation (CLLD). This relationship is free: it can be subset, superset, part/whole. Syntactic knowledge of clitics was a condition for inclusion in the main test. Our findings indicate that all learners are sensitive to the semantic constraints. While the near-native speakers display native-like discourse knowledge, the advanced speakers demonstrated some discourse knowledge, and intermediate learners did not display any discourse knowledge. The findings support as well as challenge the Interface Hypothesis.

[1]  L. Haegeman Elements of Grammar , 1997 .

[2]  U. Bohnacker The clause-initial position in L2 Swedish declaratives: Word order variation and discourse pragmatics , 2010, Nordic Journal of Linguistics.

[3]  Roumyana Slabakova,et al.  Meaning in the second language , 2008 .

[4]  Antonella Sorace,et al.  Pinning down the concept of “interface” in bilingualism , 2011 .

[5]  D. Green Control, activation, and resource: A framework and a model for the control of speech in bilinguals , 1986, Brain and Language.

[6]  H. Choi,et al.  Information Structure, Phrase Structure, and Their Interface , 1997 .

[7]  Jason Rothman,et al.  Pragmatic deficits with syntactic consequences?: L2 pronominal subjects and the syntax–pragmatics interface , 2009 .

[8]  Who is the Interface Hypothesis about , 2011 .

[9]  B. Donaldson Nativelike right-dislocation in near-native French , 2011 .

[10]  David R. Beukelman,et al.  Interface Strategies , 2013 .

[11]  J. Rothman,et al.  Gradient competence at the Syntax-Discourse Interface , 2011 .

[12]  Lydia White The interface hypothesis: How far does it extend? , 2011 .

[13]  Antonella Sorace,et al.  Anaphora resolution in near-native speakers of Italian , 2006 .

[14]  Jeanette K. Gundel The Role of Topic and Comment in Linguistic Theory , 1988 .

[15]  Robert W. Bley-Vroman THE COMPARATIVE FALLACY IN INTERLANGUAGE STUDIES: THE CASE OF SYSTEMATICITY1 , 1983 .

[16]  D. Green,et al.  Lemma selection without inhibition of languages in bilingual speakers , 1998, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition.

[17]  Roumyana Slabakova,et al.  A more careful look at the syntax–discourse interface , 2011 .

[18]  L. Rizzi The Fine Structure of the Left Periphery , 1997 .

[19]  Antonella Sorace,et al.  Differentiating interfaces: L2 performance in syntax-semantics and syntax-discourse phenomena , 2006 .

[20]  Noam Chomsky Derivation by phase , 1999 .

[21]  K. Hale,et al.  Ken Hale: A Life in Language , 2001 .

[22]  Joseph E. Emonds,et al.  Unspecified Categories as the Key to Root Constructions , 2004 .

[23]  Eugenia Casielles-Suárez,et al.  The Syntax-Information Structure Interface: Evidence from Spanish and English , 2004 .

[24]  Lydia White,et al.  Second language acquisition at the interfaces , 2011 .

[25]  Ivan Ivanov Second language acquisition of Bulgarian object clitics: a test case for the interface hypothesis , 2009 .

[26]  Liliane Haegeman,et al.  'Argument fronting in English, Romance CLLD and the left periphery'. , 2006 .

[27]  J. Rothman,et al.  The mind-context divide: on acquisition at the linguistic interfaces , 2011 .

[28]  Cristóbal Lozano,et al.  Postverbal subjects at the interfaces in Spanish and Italian learners of L2 English: a corpus analysis , 2008 .

[29]  Gemma Rigau,et al.  The Syntax of sentence periphery , 2008 .

[30]  F. Craik,et al.  Bilingual Minds , 2009, Psychological science in the public interest : a journal of the American Psychological Society.

[31]  Karlos Arregi,et al.  Clitic Left Dislocation is Contrastive Topicalization , 2003 .

[32]  Shu-ing Shyu Topic and Focus , 2014 .

[33]  Michael J. Spivey,et al.  Competing activation in bilingual language processing: Within- and between-language competition , 2003, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition.

[34]  Jeroen Van Craenenbroeck Alternatives to Cartography , 2009 .

[35]  Paul Portner,et al.  Crosslinguistic Research in Syntax and Semantics , 2006 .

[36]  Lydia White,et al.  Positive Evidence and Preemption in the Second Language Classroom , 1993, Studies in Second Language Acquisition.

[37]  A. Sorace,et al.  Theoretical and developmental issues in the syntax of subjects: Evidence from near-native Italian , 2007 .

[38]  Susan C. Bobb,et al.  Language selection in bilingual speech: evidence for inhibitory processes. , 2008, Acta psychologica.

[39]  B. Donaldson,et al.  Syntax and Discourse in Near-Native French: Clefts and Focus , 2012 .

[40]  Cristóbal Lozano,et al.  Interface conditions on postverbal subjects: A corpus study of L2 English , 2010 .

[41]  Michael Iverson,et al.  Interface vulnerability and knowledge of the subjunctive/indicative distinction with negated epistemic predicates in L2 Spanish , 2008 .

[42]  Luis López,et al.  A Derivational Syntax for Information Structure , 2009 .

[43]  B. Donaldson,et al.  LEFT DISLOCATION IN NEAR-NATIVE FRENCH , 2011, Studies in Second Language Acquisition.

[44]  Yan-kit Ingrid Leung,et al.  Gender and number agreement in nonnative Spanish , 2004 .

[45]  Elena Valenzuela,et al.  L2 end state grammars and incomplete acquisition of Spanish CLLD constructions , 2005 .