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 syntaxdiscourse interface, teasing apart acquisition of syntactic, semantic and discourse knowledge. Adopting Lopez's (2009) pragmatic features [± a(naphor)] and [±c(ontrast)], which in combination account f...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Second language research Vol. 28; no. 3; pp. 319 - 343
Main Authors: Slabakova, Roumyana, Kempchinsky, Paula, Rothman, Jason
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London, England SAGE Publications Ltd 01.07.2012
SAGE Publications
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects:
Adults
Anaphora
Antecedents
Argentina
Bilingualism
Chile
Clitics
Cognition & reasoning
Cognitive linguistics
Cognitive Psychology
Colombia
Comprehension
Costa Rica
Cuba
Discourse
Discourse anaphora
English
English as a second language learning
Executive Function
Focus
Foreign Countries
Grammar
Grammatical constructions
Hypotheses
Inhibition
Knowledge
Language
Language acquisition
Language Proficiency
Language Research
Linguistic Performance
Linguistic Theory
Linguistics
Mexico
Morphemes
Native languages
Native Speakers
Pragmatics
Psycholinguistics
Resistance (Psychology)
Resource Allocation
Second Language Learning
Second Language Learning Theories
Semantics
Semiotics
Spain
Spanish
Spanish as a Second Language Learning
Spanish Speaking
Syntactical antecedents
Syntactics
Syntax
Syntax Discourse Relationship
Syntax Semantics Relationship
Teasing
Tests
Venezuela
Colombia
Cuba
Venezuela
Argentina
Mexico
Chile
Costa Rica
Spain
Canada
United States > US
left dislocation
syntax–discourse interface
clitics
topicalization
syntax–semantics interface
Spanish
information structure
clitic left dislocation
focus fronting
ISSN:0267-6583, 1477-0326
Online Access:Get full text
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Description
Summary:This experimental study tests the Interface Hypothesis by looking into processes at the syntaxdiscourse interface, teasing apart acquisition of syntactic, semantic and discourse knowledge. Adopting Lopez'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.
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ISSN:0267-6583
1477-0326
DOI:10.1177/0267658312447612