Journal articles on the topic 'Discourse pragmatics-syntax interface'
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1
Vlachos, Christos, and Michalis Chiou. "The syntax, semantics and pragmatics of ‘optional’ wh-in situ in Greek." Journal of Greek Linguistics 20, no. 1 (June 4, 2020): 102–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15699846-02001001.
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Abstract Building on the relevant literature, this paper provides an up-to-now missing overarching approach to ‘optional’ wh-in situ questions in Greek, by arguing that some properties of wh-in situ are computed at the interface between syntax and semantics, other properties relate to the syntax-pragmatics interface, and yet others are derived at the interface between PF and pragmatics. Wh-in situ is not semantically (hence, syntactically) equivalent to wh-fronting, with the latter being the default strategy of Greek on empirical grounds. Wh-in situ assumes distinct syntax and semantics, while its pragmatics is computed partly by the way it is associated to the discourse, and partly by intonation.
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Khouja, Marta. "dom as a syntax-pragmatics interface marker." Differential objects and datives – a homogeneous class? 42, no. 1 (July 10, 2019): 56–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/li.00029.kho.
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Abstract Building on the display of dom in Catalan and focusing on the Balearic variety, this paper explores this phenomenon arguing for a discourse-driven marking, showing that the assumption that semantic hierarchies as crucial triggers for dom cannot be assumed anymore. We aim to present some ideas to address the correlation between prepositional markings and peripheral positions and to provide arguments for a syntax-pragmatics approach to dom in Clitic Dislocation. Our data shed light on the link between information structure – in particular, anaphoricity- and marked objects. This analysis would also account for other markers (i.e. de) available as a mechanism for signalling the same [+anaphoric] feature.
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Donaldson, Bryan. "Nativelike right-dislocation in near-native French." Second Language Research 27, no. 3 (April 18, 2011): 361–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0267658310395866.
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Recent research on advanced and near-native second-language (L2) speakers has focused on the acquisition of interface phenomena, for example at the syntax—pragmatics interface. Proponents of the Interface Hypothesis (e.g. Sorace, 2005; Sorace and Filiaci, 2006; Tsimpli and Sorace, 2006; Sorace and Serratrice, 2009) argue that (external) interfaces present difficulties for L2 grammars, resulting in permanent deficits even in near-native grammars. Other research, however, has argued that interfaces are acquirable, albeit with delays (Ivanov, 2009; Rothman, 2009). This study examines right-dislocation (RD) in experimental and production data from near-native French. Right-dislocation marks topic in discourse and thus requires the integration of syntactic and discourse—pragmatic knowledge. Participants were 10 near-native speakers of French who learned French after age 10 and whose grammatical competence was comparable to the near-native speakers of French in Birdsong (1992), and 10 French native speakers. The data come from two experimental tasks and an 8.5-hour corpus of spontaneous informal dyadic conversations. The near-natives demonstrated nativelike judgments, preferences, and use of RD in authentic discourse. Only one near-native displayed evidence of first-language (L1) transfer, which resulted in non-nativelike use of RD. On the whole, the results suggest nativelike acquisition of this area of the syntax—pragmatics interface and fail to provide support for the Interface Hypothesis.
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Hoot, Bradley. "Narrow presentational focus in heritage Spanish and the syntax‒discourse interface." Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 7, no. 1 (January 25, 2016): 63–95. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/lab.14021.hoo.
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Abstract The grammars of bilinguals have been found to differ from those of monolinguals especially with regard to phenomena that involve the interface of syntax and discourse/pragmatics. This paper examines one syntax‒discourse interface phenomenon – presentational focus – in the grammars of heritage speakers of Spanish. The results of a contextualized acceptability judgment task indicate that lower proficiency heritage speakers show some variability in the structures they accept to realize focus, whereas higher proficiency heritage bilinguals pattern with monolinguals. These results suggest that some explanations of domain-specific vulnerability in bilingual grammars, including the Interface Hypothesis (Sorace, 2011), may need to be revised.
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Sánchez, Liliana, José Camacho, and Jose Elías Ulloa. "Shipibo-Spanish: Differences in residual transfer at the syntax-morphology and the syntax-pragmatics interfaces." Second Language Research 26, no. 3 (July 2010): 329–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0267658310365774.
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In this article, we present a study that tests the Interface Hypothesis (Sorace and Filiaci, 2006) at the syntax—pragmatics interface and its possible extension to the syntax—morphology interface in two groups of first language (L1) speakers of Shipibo with different levels of formal instruction in Spanish as a second language (L2). Shipibo is a mixed null subject language that only allows third person null subjects and has no person morphology on the verb. Spanish is a null subject language with rich person morphology on the verb. Evidence of acquisition of a core syntactic property (the extension of null subject licensing from third to first person subjects) was found in the speech of both groups of Shipibo speakers. No significant evidence of residual non-native patterns at the syntax—morphology interface was found (subject—verb mismatches in person) in the group with higher levels of formal instruction. At the syntax—pragmatics interface, we found non-native distribution of first person null subjects in both groups of Shipibo speakers that indicates residual transfer of discourse organization properties concerning topics from Shipibo into Spanish.
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SERRATRICE, LUDOVICA, ANTONELLA SORACE, and SANDRA PAOLI. "Crosslinguistic influence at the syntax–pragmatics interface: Subjects and objects in English–Italian bilingual and monolingual acquisition." Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 7, no. 3 (November 15, 2004): 183–205. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1366728904001610.
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The findings from a number of recent studies indicate that, even in cases of successful bilingual first language acquisition, the possibility remains of a certain degree of crosslinguistic influence when the choice between syntactic options is affected by discourse pragmatics. In this study we focussed on the use of referring expressions, prime candidates to test the interaction between syntax and pragmatics, and we compared the distribution of subjects and objects in the Italian and English of a bilingual child (1;10–4;6) with that of two groups of MLUw-matched monolinguals. All arguments were coded for syntactic function and for a number of discourse pragmatic features predicted to affect their realisation. Our main prediction was that unidirectional crosslinguistic influence might occur for the English–Italian bilingual child with respect to pronominal subject and object use after the instantiation of the C system. Specifically we predicted that in Italian the bilingual child might use overt pronominal subjects in contexts where monolinguals would use a null subject, and that he might use postverbal strong object pronouns in Italian instead of preverbal weak pronominal clitics. Conversely, we did not expect the overall proportion of overt objects, whether noun phrases or pronouns, to vary crosslinguistically as objects are always obligatorily overt in both languages regardless of discourse pragmatics. Our results confirmed these predictions, and corroborated the argument that crosslinguistic influence may occur in bilingual first language acquisition in specific contexts in which syntax and pragmatics interact.
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Massery, Laurie A., and Claudio Fuentes. "Morphological variability at the morphosyntactic/semantic interface." ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics 165, no. 1 (June 6, 2014): 46–75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/itl.165.1.03mas.
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Recent literature in second language acquisition shows that syntax-driven structures give way to successful modal interpretation and morphological production, while discourse-dependent environments do not (Sorace, 2005; Tsimpli & Sorace, 2006, Borganovo, Bruhn de Garavito, & Prévost, 2008; Iverson, Kempchinsky, & Rothman, 2008). It has also been suggested that discourse-dependent environments involve both structural and pragmatic knowledge of L2, which intersect at the syntax-discourse interface (Sorace, 2005; Iverson, Kempchinsky, & Rothman, 2008), thereby requiring a multi-layered understanding of the target language. The present study contributes to this line of research by further examining morphological variability (Prévost & White, 2000; Sorace, 2000; Sorace, 2005; Iverson, Kempchinsky, & Rothman, 2008; Slabakova, 2009) in L2 acquisition at the morphosyntactic-semantic interface, following the work of Borganovo, Bruhn de Garavito, & Prévost (2008). The results of our study reveal that learners, even at advanced stages of acquisition, perform poorly in epistemic environments where syntax and discourse intersect. In such environments, there appears to be an interaction with pragmatics (cf. Iverson, Kempchinsky, & Rothman, 2008) that causes learners to opt for the indicative mood, even when the subjunctive is prescriptively required. Unlike deontic modality, which is essentially syntax-driven, epistemic modality requires structural knowledge, as well as knowledge from other domains (Sorace, 2005). Our study reveals that learners at all levels of instruction performed better in “purely syntactic” environments of deontic modality than in pragmatically challenging epistemic environments.
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Haidou, Konstantina. "On the syntax and pragmatics interface: left-peripheral, medial and right-peripheral focus in Greek." ZAS Papers in Linguistics 35, no. 1 (January 1, 2004): 193–242. http://dx.doi.org/10.21248/zaspil.35.2004.227.
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The present paper explores the extent to which narrow syntax is responsible for the computation of discourse functions such as focus/topic. More specifically, it challenges the claim that language approximates ‘perfection’ with respect to economy, conceptual necessity and optimality in design by reconsidering the roles and interactions of the different modules of the grammar, in particular of syntax and phonology and the mapping between the two, in the representation of pragmatic notions. Empirical and theoretical considerations strongly indicate that narrow syntax is ‘blind’ to properties and operations involving the interpretive components — that is, PF and LF. As a result, syntax-phonology interface rules do not ‘see’ everything in the levels they connect. In essence, the architecture of grammar proposed here from the perspective of focus marking necessitates the autonomy of the different levels of grammar, presupposing that NS is minimally structured only when liberated from any non-syntactic/discourse implementations, i.e., movement operations to satisfy both interface needs. As a result, the model articulated here totally dispenses with discourse projections, i.e. FocusP.
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Meir, Irit. "Sentence-phrase coordination in Hebrew and the syntax–pragmatics interface." Studies in Language 32, no. 1 (January 11, 2008): 1–21. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/sl.32.1.02mei.
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The coordination of a sentence and a phrase (Sentence-Phrase coordination, henceforth SPC) is a very widespread, though marked, construction in Modern Hebrew. It is characterized by special prosody in that it carries two sentential stresses, and is perceived as more forceful or emphatic than its non-conjoined counterpart. A full account of the properties and distribution of the construction involves both a syntactic and a pragmatic component. The analysis presented in the paper proposes that: (a) The conjunction imposes a propositional interpretation on the phrasal coordinand, thus enabling the speaker to convey two pieces of new information in one sentence. (b) Syntactically, the phrasal coordinand is best analyzed as an adjunct to the sentential coordinand. (c) The special discourse effect of the construction is to be analyzed as a case of independent strengthening (following Sperber & Wilson 1986, Blakemore & Carston 2005), whereby each coordinand leads independently to the same conclusion, thus providing cumulative evidence to the same purpose. (d) Although syntactically non-parallel, the two coordinands play a parallel inferential role in deriving cognitive effects of the utterance. Hence the use of the conjunction is taken as an instruction to the hearer to look for pragmatic parallelism between two constituents which are clearly non-like syntactically.
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Liceras, Juana M., and John Grinstead. "Introduction. Language acquisition and cognitive science at the crossroads." Probus 28, no. 1 (January 1, 2016): 1–7. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/probus-2016-0001.
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AbstractThe articles compiled in this volume provide an account of current research in “core” areas in the field of language acquisition (primary, secondary and bilingual) and suggest new avenues of research and ways of approaching the relationship between the theories and methodologies. Within the framework of cognitive sciences, specifically linguistics and psycholinguistics, the articles investigate language acquisition from four different dimensions: processing and lexical access, the prosody–pragmatics interface, the discourse–syntax interface and language impairment (so-called specific language impairment). Using data from four Romance languages – Catalan, French, Portuguese and Spanish – these articles address state-of-the-art issues pertaining to the relationship between language acquisition and other cognitive modules.
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Zyzik, Eve. "Subject expression in L2 Spanish: Convergence of generative and usage-based perspectives?" Second Language Research 33, no. 1 (July 30, 2016): 33–59. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0267658316659106.
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The extensive literature on subject expression in Spanish makes for rich comparisons between generative (formal) and usage-based (functional) approaches to language acquisition. This article explores how the problem of subject expression has been conceptualized within each research tradition, as well as unanswered questions that both approaches must consider in order to strengthen and refine their positions. The discussion focuses on convergence between the approaches, which stems from the contemporary interest in the syntax–pragmatics interface and some methodological overlap that results from a joint focus on discourse data.
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Gilquin, Gaëtanelle. "At the interface of contact linguistics and second language acquisition research." English World-Wide 36, no. 1 (February 10, 2015): 91–124. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/eww.36.1.05gil.
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This paper examines the possible interface between contact linguistics and second language acquisition research by comparing the institutionalized second-language varieties of English known as “New Englishes” and the foreign varieties of English called “Learner Englishes”. On the basis of corpus data representing several populations of various origins, it investigates four linguistic phenomena, ranging from syntax (embedded inversion) to lexis (phrasal verbs with up), through phraseology (word clusters) and pragmatics (discourse markers), with a view to identifying similarities and differences between the two types of varieties at several levels of the language. The paper also explores avenues for going beyond a descriptive account towards a more explanatory one, in an attempt to build the foundations of a theoretical rapprochement between contact linguistics and second language acquisition research.
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Trotzke, Andreas, Ermenegildo Bidese, and Manuela Caterina Moroni. "German discourse particles in the second language classroom." Pedagogical Linguistics 1, no. 2 (August 7, 2020): 184–210. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/pl.20008.tro.
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Abstract One of the main pedagogical objectives for language learners at high proficiency levels is to use ‘cohesive devices’ when writing a text or conducting a conversation. Usually, curricula stress the importance of clause-internal cohesion (by means such as connectives: and, but, when, because, etc.). By contrast, we stress the importance of cohesion at the level of the dialogue and in this context focus on discourse (aka ‘modal’) particles as a means to yield cohesion at that level. In this domain, German discourse particles represent a challenging learning objective for second language learners of German. This paper explores some production patterns of German discourse particles in L2 German by L1 Italian learners. We show that looking at those elements can provide new insights because these elements allow us to tease apart problems within syntax as compared to the lexicon-pragmatics interface in second language learning.
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Gavarró, Anna. "L1 variation in object pronominalisation, and the import of pragmatics." Probus 31, no. 2 (September 25, 2019): 299–322. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/probus-2016-0011.
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Abstract Much work on referential expressions in monolingual and bilingual acquisition rests on the assumption that early grammars licence null objects even when they are not possible in the corresponding target grammar, in virtue of discourse-pragmatic licencing. This proposal has been made mainly with reference to third person object pronominalisation. Less attention has been given to other pronouns. Here, I show how the pragmatic account of third person object pronouns (along the lines of Serratrice et al. [2004, Crosslinguistic influence in the syntax-pragmatics interface: Subjects and objects in English-Italian bilingual and monolingual acquisition. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 7(3). 182–205], in the spirit of Hulk and Müller [2000, Bilingual first language acquisition at the interface between syntax and pragmatics. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 3(3). 227–244], Müller and Hulk [2001, Crosslinguistic influence in bilingual language acquisition: Italian and French as recipient languages. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 4(1). 1–21]) does not extend to clitics instantiating other person specifications or other grammatical functions. I present an alternative analysis, in terms of the Unique Checking Constraint (Wexler [1998, Very early parameter setting and the unique checking constraint: A new explanation for the optional infinitive stage. Lingua 106. 23–79]) that offers a generalisation over other clitics, in particular indirect object clitics and first person object clitics, which are generally preserved in child grammar – as witnessed by two experiments run on Catalan L1 reported here.
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Laleko, Oksana. "What Errors Can’t Tell Us About Heritage Grammars: On Covert Restructuring of Aspect in Russian." LSA Annual Meeting Extended Abstracts 1 (May 2, 2010): 52. http://dx.doi.org/10.3765/exabs.v0i0.532.
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The paper examines covert restructuring of the aspectual system of Russian in the context of heritage acquisition, i.e. systematic grammatical reorganization not manifested in overt errors. The interaction between VP-level aspectuality and sentential aspect is examined in the data from high-proficiency heritage speakers and baseline speakers of Russian. While the two grammars largely converge at the VP level (particularly in atelic contexts), they differ with respect to how sentential aspect is expressed, suggesting that the differences lie at the syntax-pragmatics interface: heritage grammar diverges from the baseline grammar in those contexts where syntactic knowledge must be integrated with discourse-pragmatic knowledge.
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Meng, Hai-Rong, and Takeshi Nakamoto. "Discourse particles in Chinese–Japanese code switching: Constrained by the Matrix Language Frame?" International Journal of Bilingualism 22, no. 1 (July 13, 2016): 100–122. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1367006916658712.
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Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: The purpose of this paper is to clarify the grammatical constraints on discourse particles in Chinese–Japanese intra-sentential code switching in light of the general framework of the Matrix Language Frame (MLF) model augmented by the 4-M model. Design/methodology/approach: This study retrieves data collected for three years from three Chinese–Japanese bilingual children aged between 2;1 and 5;0. Data and analysis: The database consists of nearly 300 hours of spontaneous conversations that are audio-recorded from the families of the three bilingual children, as well as diary entries. It shows that a large number of code switching utterances involve discourse particles. Findings/conclusions: Qualitative analyses of the data indicate that discourse particles are generally constrained by the MLF, yet they do not fit into any category of the 4-M model. Morphologically bound, discourse particles represent the information structure of a sentence (as in the Japanese topic marker - wa) or encode constraints on the inferential processes (as in the Japanese complementizer - kara) rather than truth-conditional information. They manifest some idiosyncrasy at the interface of syntax and pragmatics, and set up the MLF at a discourse level. Thus, the MLF model is extended from a merely syntactic level to the syntax–discourse interface. Originality: The present work has contributed empirical evidence from a hitherto undocumented language pair of Chinese and Japanese, and made theoretical explorations on the linguistic constraints of discourse particles. Significance/implications: On one hand, it is work that provides support for the robust nature of universality of the MLF constraints on code switching. On the other hand, discourse particles exhibit typological features that need further theoretical exploration in order to make a more comprehensive account for the grammatical constraints on Chinese–Japanese code switching.
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SORACE, ANTONELLA. "Native language attrition and developmental instability at the syntax-discourse interface: Data, interpretations and methods." Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 7, no. 2 (July 23, 2004): 143–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1366728904001543.
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Montrul's study is an important contribution to a recently emerged research approach to the study of bilingualism and languages in contact, characterized by its sound theoretical basis and its reliance on data from different – and traditionally non-integrated – domains of language development: bilingual first language acquisition (Müller and Hulk, 2001; Paradis and Navarro, 2003; Serratrice, 2004; Serratrice, Sorace and Paoli, in press), adult second language acquisition (Filiaci, 2003; Sorace, 2003), and native language attrition (Gurel, 2002; Tsimpli, Sorace, Heycock and Filiaci, in press). The generalization that is emerging from this approach is that interfaces between syntax and other cognitive systems (i.e. discourse pragmatics, lexical-semantics) exhibit more developmental instability than narrow syntax. For L1 attrition, which is the specific focus of the paper, this means that aspects of grammar at the syntax–discourse interface are more vulnerable to attrition than purely syntactic aspects. The identification of restrictions on the domain of occurrence of attrition is consistent with much previous descriptive research on this topic (e.g. Seliger and Vago, 1991). More recently, the same conclusion has been reached by a study on individual language attrition by Tsimpli et al. (in press), who investigated knowledge of the referential pronominal system in Greek and Italian in very advanced speakers of English. In this paper, Montrul tests the generalization on second-generation speakers of Spanish – or “heritage speakers” – a bilingual group that presents different characteristics from the adult L2 speakers investigated in Tsimpli et al.'s study. In addition to referential subjects, she also focuses on a different interface area of grammar – direct objects – that had not been investigated before. In these respects, Montrul's study is a welcome development. In other respects, however, the data are less than convincing and do not allow a straightforward interpretation. My commentary focuses on three fundamental questions raised not only by this study, but also by this type of research in general. The main focus will be the expression of referential subjects since this aspect of grammar has been investigated in other studies and therefore offers the possibility of direct comparison among results.
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MONTRUL, SILVINA. "Subject and object expression in Spanish heritage speakers: A case of morphosyntactic convergence." Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 7, no. 2 (July 23, 2004): 125–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1366728904001464.
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Many simultaneous bilinguals exhibit loss or incomplete acquisition of their heritage language under conditions of exposure and use of the majority language (Silva-Corvalán, 1994, 2003; Polinsky, 1997; Toribio, 2001; Montrul, 2002). Recent work within discourse-functional (Silva-Corvalán 1994) and generative perspectives (Sorace, 2000; Montrul; 2002; Tsimpli, Sorace, Heycock, Filaci and Bouba, 2003, in press) suggests that while syntax proper is impervious to language loss or attrition, syntax-related interfaces like lexical-semantics and discourse-pragmatics are not. This study investigates argument expression in adult simultaneous bilinguals who are heritage speakers of Spanish, because in this language subjects, direct, and indirect objects are regulated by syntactic, pragmatic and semantic factors. It was hypothesized that if language loss affects interface areas of competence more than the purely syntactic domains, then Spanish heritage speakers should display robust knowledge of null subjects as well as object clitics, but variable behavior in the pragmatic distribution of null vs. overt subjects, the a preposition with animate direct objects, and cases of semantically based dative clitic-doubling. Results of an oral production task administered to 24 intermediate and advanced heritage speakers and 20 monolinguals confirmed the hypotheses. With the erosion of pragmatic and semantic features, the grammars of the intermediate proficiency Spanish heritage speakers appear to display morphosyntactic convergence with English in the expression of subject and object arguments.
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Goad, Heather, and Lydia White. "Prosodic effects on L2 grammars." Epistemological issue with keynote article “Prosodic effects on L2 grammars” 9, no. 6 (October 8, 2019): 769–808. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/lab.19043.goa.
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Abstract This paper provides an overview of the Prosodic Transfer Hypothesis (PTH), which accounts for certain difficulties that learners experience with L2 morphosyntax. We focus on inflection and articles, which have often been accounted for through defective syntactic representations or problems with the interface between morphology and syntax (inflection) and between semantics or discourse/pragmatics and syntax (articles). We argue that some problems in these domains reflect transfer of L1 prosodic constraints: certain forms cannot be prosodically represented as target-like and hence are omitted or mispronounced. We trace how the PTH has developed over time, from its initial instantiation as involving permanent L1 transfer, to currently, where L1 representations are seen as adaptable to the needs of the L2, and new representations can in fact be acquired. We provide an overview of work conducted in this framework and discuss how the theory has been extended beyond production to encompass comprehension and processing.
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Chou, Chao-Ting Tim, Tsung-Ying Chen, and Acrisio Pires. "Acquisition of null objects in Mandarin Chinese by heritage speakers." International Journal of Chinese Linguistics 7, no. 2 (December 10, 2020): 223–69. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/ijchl.19016.cho.
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Abstract The acquisition of the grammatical knowledge related to inflectional morphology and syntax-pragmatics interface have both been shown to be challenging for heritage speakers (e.g., Montrul et al. 2008; Polinsky 2006, 2008; Sorace et al. 2009; Montrul 2009; Benmamoun et al. 2013a; Laleko & Polinsky 2016). In these previous work on heritage language acquisition, the acquisition of inflectional morphology (e.g. either agreement morphology or topic marking) is also a relevant acquisition task associated with the syntax-discourse phenomena under investigation. In this paper we focus on the acquisition of discourse-conditioned structures by heritage speakers when inflectional morphology is not part of the learning task. Specifically, we report results of a picture-verification experiment focusing on English-dominant heritage Chinese speakers’ grammatical knowledge of null objects. As a topic-prominent language lacking verbal tense/agreement morphology, the licensing and identification of null arguments in Chinese has nothing to do with agreement morphology. In addition, unlike other topic-prominent pro-drop languages, Chinese has no inflectional morphology associated with grammatical subjects/objects and topic phrases. Without the interference of co-occurring inflectional morphology, we found that there is no significant difference between heritage Chinese speakers and the monolingual baseline in their acceptance of null objects in contextually appropriate contexts. The results of our study cast doubt on the thesis that heritage speakers are unable to acquire discourse-related knowledge (cf. Sorace & Serratrice 2009; Laleko 2010; Laleko & Polinsky 2016) and support Yuan’s (2010) claim that interface categories should not be considered holistically.
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Teixeira, Joana. "Será a interface sintaxe-discurso necessariamente um locus de opcionalidade em L2? O caso da inversão locativa em inglês L2." Revista da Associação Portuguesa de Linguística, no. 3 (September 29, 2017): 347–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.26334/2183-9077/rapln3ano2017a19.
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This study investigates the acquisition of locative inversion in L1 European Portuguese (EP) – L2 English and L1 French – L2 English. Its purpose is to test two opposing hypotheses on the end-state of L2 acquisition at the syntaxdiscourse interface: the Interface Hypothesis (IH) and the L1+input Hypothesis (LIH). The former proposes that the syntax-discourse/pragmatics interface is a locus of residual, but permanent, optionality, because L2 speakers are less than optimally efficient at integrating syntactic and contextual information in real-time language use as a by-product of bilingualism. The latter, in contrast, sustains that structures at this interface generate problems at highly advanced levels of proficiency iff their properties are different in the L1 and the L2 and the evidence available in the input is not transparent (e.g., because the structure is rare). By administering 2 untimed drag and drop tasks, 2 speeded acceptability judgement tasks and 1 syntactic priming task to a total of 80 participants, we tested, on the one hand, the type of intransitive verb allowed in locative inversion and, on the other, the type of discourse context in which this inversion is admitted. The results disconfirm the LIH and confirm (most of) the IH’s predictions.
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Irimia, Monica Alexandrina. "Oblique differential object marking and types of nominals." Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique 66, no. 4 (December 2021): 486–518. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cnj.2021.28.
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AbstractThe question of whether differentially marked objects should be linked with Case licensing or some other mechanism in the grammar has given rise to numerous debates. Addressing contexts of differential object marking (DOM) with oblique morphology, this article shows that, while the Case licensing approach might be adequate for varieties of Spanish, oblique differential marking rather signals an independent licensing operation, beyond Case, in languages like Romanian, Gujarati or Mandarin Chinese. This additional mechanism, relevant at the syntax-semantics-pragmatics interface, tracks the role of grammaticalized animates or how the speaker relates to other entities in the discourse. Additionally, the data examined here indicate that objects can come in a variety of sizes and structures, with distinct licensing constraints, such that the divide Case licensed/unlicensed or Case licensing/(pseudo-)incorporation is not enough.
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Kullavanijaya, Pranee. "The 2005 Year’s Work in Linguistics in Thailand." MANUSYA 10, no. 3 (2007): 133–48. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/26659077-01003008.
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A study of Thai linguistics works in 2005 shows that most are MA. theses and doctoral dissertations done by Thai students in five universities in Thailand and a few universities in the U.S.. and the UK.. Only three works analyse foreign languages, while the rest investigate the Bangkok Thai dialect. Five main areas are identified: sound and orthography, sociolinguistics, utterance semantics, lexical semantics and syntax-semantic interface. More works focus on the last two areas. With regard to the frameworks used in the analyses, pragmatics, discourse, and speech acts are found most often. Several topics such as village names, politeness, and slang, which have been studied previously, were investigated again in 2005 with different locations or different groups of speakers. Although such investigations may yield additional information on the topics, new questions or new probes into similar data may be preferable.
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Chung, Hye-Yoon. "The Acquisition of the Linguistic Phenomenon at the Interface between Syntax and Discourse-Pragmatics/Semantics by Korean Learners of Spanish." Studies in Linguistics 54 (January 31, 2020): 309–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.17002/sil..54.202001.309.
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Alshamari, Murdhy, and Abdulaziz Albalwi. "Analysing Appreciating and Criticizing in Standard Arabic: When Morphology Supports Syntax." International Journal of Language and Literary Studies 3, no. 1 (March 30, 2021): 37–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.36892/ijlls.v3i1.492.
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This paper provides a minimalist (Chomsky 2000, 2001) investigation to a syntactic phenomenon slightly analysed in syntactic research on Standard Arabic (SA) literature of poetry (TaqiAldin 1987). This syntactic phenomenon is derived by a construction of a wh-in situ phrase embedded in a construct state phrase (WICS, henceforth). The novelty about this SA WICS phenomenon is that the entity expressed by the wh-phrase is ambiguously assigned two pragmatic values: med? (appreciating) and hid?a? (criticizing). Holding in abeyance with the idea that SA is frozen, having not developed for decades, this research sets a comparative exploration between SA and Saudi variety of Arabic (SDA). It is shown that SDA syntax-pragmatics interface is straightforward. SDA displays WICS, which derives hid?a?, in addition to displaying wh-ex situ phenomenon, which derives med?. In comparison, SA syntax is restricted to WICS phenomenon, which predicts that in construct state context, SA only derives hid?a?, hence, the ambiguity. With minimalist investigation to further articulated structure in the SA data under analysis, the research concludes that the instance of SA WICS is an occurrence of med?, rather than hid?a?. Evidence for this conclusion is based on the observation that, though the occurrence of SA WICS is associated with lack of movement of the wh-phrase, it is simultaneously associated with a wide-scope of the discourse marker wa, which functions as a pragmatic device assigning speaker positive attitude pragmatic value to the proposition. That is to say, SA grammar requires morphology to support syntax with a morphological device when the latter falls short to activate syntactic operations like movement for med? interpretation.
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Bohnacker, Ute. "The clause-initial position in L2 Swedish declaratives: Word order variation and discourse pragmatics." Nordic Journal of Linguistics 33, no. 2 (September 22, 2010): 105–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s033258651000017x.
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In a recent study of the clause-initial position in verb-second declaratives (the prefield), Bohnacker & Rosén (2008) found significant differences between native Swedish and German concerning the frequencies with which constituents occurred in the prefield, as well as qualitative differences concerning the mapping of information structure and linear word order: Swedish exhibited a stronger tendency than German to place new information, the so-called rheme, later in the clause. Swedish-speaking learners of German transferred these patterns from their L1 to German. Their sentences were syntactically well-formed but had Swedish-style prefield frequencies and a strong pattern of Rheme Later, which native Germans perceive as unidiomatic, as an acceptability judgment and a rewrite-L2texts task showed. The present study extends Bohnacker & Rosén's work in three ways. Learners of the reverse language combination (L1 German, L2 Swedish) are investigated to see whether similar phenomena also manifest themselves there. Secondly, written and oral data from highly advanced learners are examined to see whether the learners’ persistent problems can be overcome by extensive immersion (3, 6 and 9 years of L2 exposure). Thirdly, besides investigating theme–rheme (old vs. new information), some consideration is given to another information-structural level, background vs. focus. The learners are found to overuse the prefield at first, with non-Swedish, German-style frequency patterns (e.g. low proportions of clause-initial expletives and high proportions of clause-initial rhematic elements). This is interpreted as evidence for L1 transfer of information-structural or discourse-pragmatic preferences. After 6 and 9 years, a substantial increase in clause-initial expletive subjects, clefts and lightweight given elements is indicative of development towards the target. The findings are related to current generative theorizing on the syntax-pragmatics interface, where it is often maintained that the integration of multiple types of information is one of the hardest areas for L2 learners to master.
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MONTRUL, SILVINA. "Form–meaning mappings in the aspectual domain: What about the L1? A response to Bruhn de Garavito and Valenzuela." Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 11, no. 3 (November 2008): 337–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1366728908003568.
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Any person who has taught Spanish as a second language or who has interacted with a non-native speaker of Spanish can easily tell that mastering the correct use of the copulas ser and estar is very difficult in both spoken and written production. But L2 learners are not alone. The Spanish copulas also present difficulty and frustration for L2 instructors of Spanish, since most pedagogical explanations of the uses of ser and estar provided in textbooks are incomplete and inaccurate. However, the acquisition of copular constructions has not received the attention it deserves in the acquisition literature, making a special issue of Bilingualism: Language and Cognition dedicated to this topic particularly welcome. A reason for the scarcity of research in this area may be related to both the linguistic complexity of Spanish ser and estar and the inadequacy of many available theoretical treatments to explain their complementary distribution. Although constructions with ser and estar are highly frequent in the input, they are grammatically quite intricate, straddling between the levels of morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics. Accordingly, Bruhn de Garavito and Valenzuela correctly frame their study within the current debate on interface vulnerability in language development in general, and in adult L2 acquisition in particular (Sorace, 2004; White, in press). In a nutshell, grammatical areas which require the integration of different levels of linguistic knowledge (e.g., syntax–discourse, syntax–morphology, morphology–semantics, etc.) for processing, production, or interpretation, show developmental delays and instability in monolingual and bilingual acquisition. In the case of monolingual acquisition, instability or non-target-like behavior is temporary, but in L2 grammars, instability can persist up to very advanced levels of proficiency, eventually leading to fossilization.
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PARADIS, JOHANNE, and SAMUEL NAVARRO. "Subject realization and crosslinguistic interference in the bilingual acquisition of Spanish and English: what is the role of the input?" Journal of Child Language 30, no. 2 (May 2003): 371–93. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0305000903005609.
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This study investigated whether crosslinguistic interference occurs in the domain of subject realization in Spanish in a bilingual acquisition context. We were also interested in exploring whether the source of the interference is due to child-internal crosslanguage contact between English and Spanish, as is commonly assumed, or due to the nature of the language input in a bilingual family, a factor which has not typically been considered in studies of crosslinguistic influence. The use of subjects in a null subject language like Spanish is a phenomenon linked to the pragmatics/syntax interface of the grammar, and thus, is a domain where crosslinguistic interference is predicted to be likely to occur in bilingual acquisition (Müller & Hulk, 2001). Using spontaneous language data available from CHILDES (www.childes.psy.cmu.edu), we examined the use of overt subjects in Spanish by two Spanish monolingual children (ages: 1;8–2;7 and 1;8–1;11) one Spanish–English bilingual child (age 1;9–2;6) and their parental interlocutors. We looked at the proportions of overt versus null subjects as well as the discourse-pragmatic contexts of overt subject use by the children in order to uncover bilingual/monolingual differences in the distributional properties and the functional determinants of subject realization. We also looked at identical variables in the speech of the children's parental interlocutors to investigate the potential influence of the input on the children's output. Our results suggest that the bilingual child showed patterns in her subject realizations in Spanish that could be interpreted as due to crosslinguistic effects from English; however, there is also evidence that these effects may have a source in the input, rather than resulting from internal crosslanguage contact. While our data do not permit us to distinguish conclusively between these two possible sources, they indicate that future research on crosslinguistic influence in bilingual acquisition should take input into account.
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Slabakova, Roumyana. "Semantic Theory and Second Language Acquisition." Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 30 (March 2010): 231–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0267190510000139.
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The article identifies four different types of meaning situated in different modules of language. Such a modular view of language architecture suggests that there may be differential difficulties of acquisition for the different modules. It is argued that second language (L2) acquisition of meaning involves acquiring interpretive mismatches at the first and second language (L1-L2) syntax-semantics interfaces. In acquiring meaning, learners face two types of learning situations. One situation where the sentence syntax presents less difficulty but different pieces of functional morphology subsume different primitives of meaning is dubbed simple syntax–complex semantics. Another type of learning situation is exemplified in less frequent, dispreferred, or syntactically complex sentences where the sentential semantics offers no mismatch; these are labeled complex syntax–simple semantics. Studies representative of these learning situations are reviewed. The issues of importance of explicit instruction with respect to interpretive properties and the effect of the native language are addressed. Studies looking at acquisition of language-specific discourse properties and universal pragmatics are also reviewed. These representative studies and numerous other studies on the L2 acquisition of meaning point to no visible barrier to ultimate success in the acquisition of semantics and pragmatics.
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Czypionka, Anna, Maribel Romero, and Josef Bayer. "Question-sensitive discourse particles at the interfaces of syntax, semantics and pragmatics – an experimental approach." Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 6, no. 1 (February 22, 2021): 24. http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.1203.
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Kotroni, Maria. "The Acquisition of Aspect and Motion Verbs in the Native Language (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 2014)." Journal of Greek Linguistics 15, no. 1 (2015): 147–53. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15699846-01501005.
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This investigation focuses on the subtle features of the Syntax-Semantics and Syntax-Discourse Interfaces as they are manifested in the comprehension and production of typically developing children acquiring Greek as a native language. Many studies have concluded that aspectual semantics is acquired at any early age in children. The results of the present study are consistent with this observation. Moreover, it offers proof that the integration of pragmatics and compositional properties of telicity, which are necessary in order to overcome the lexical aspect of manner-of-motion verbs in non-locative contexts (due to lack of coercion, which does not occur with motion verbs), leads to processing load and results in a delay of acquisition after a child reaches 10 years old.
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Feng, Shuo. "The computation and suspension of presuppositions by L1-Mandarin Chinese L2-English speakers." Second Language Research, February 21, 2021, 026765832199387. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0267658321993873.
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The Interface Hypothesis proposes that second language (L2) learners, even at highly proficient levels, often fail to integrate information at the external interfaces where grammar interacts with other cognitive systems. While much early L2 work has focused on the syntax–discourse interface or scalar implicatures at the semantics–pragmatics interface, the present article adds to this line of research by exploring another understudied phenomenon at the semantics–pragmatics interface, namely, presuppositions. Furthermore, this study explores both inference computation and suspension via a covered-box picture-selection task. Specifically, this study investigates the interpretation of a presupposition trigger stop and stop under negation. The results from 38 native English speakers and 41 first language (L1) Mandarin Chinese learners of English indicated similar response patterns between native and L2 groups in computing presuppositions but not in suspending presuppositions. That is, L2 learners were less likely to suspend presuppositions than native speakers. This study contributes to a more precise understanding of L2 acquisition at the external interface level, as well as computation and suspension of pragmatic inferences.
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Gupton, Timothy, and Silvia Sánchez Calderón. "Focus at the syntax–discourse interface in L2 Spanish: Optionality and unaccusativity reconsidered." Second Language Research, June 3, 2021, 026765832110176. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/02676583211017604.
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We examine the second language (L2) acquisition of variable Spanish word order by first language (L1) speakers of English via the acquisition of unaccusative and transitive predicates in various focus-related contexts. We employ two bimodal linguistic tasks: (1) acceptability judgment task (B-AJT) and (2) appropriateness preference task (B-APT). Both present contextualized prompts similar to previous studies, followed by response options with accompanying audio to control for intonation and pauses. Results suggest a number of key findings: (1) by the high intermediate level, L2ers acquire the relevant syntactic and syntax information structure interface competencies for both predicate types; (2) native speakers and L2 groups exhibit optionality, and only differ in nuanced ways; and (3) advanced learners show signs of acquiring syntactic and syntax–information structure competencies in numerous contexts, but display minor differences regarding optionality with corrective focus, an interface incorporating multiple interfaces (syntax–prosody pragmatics). Unlike the predictions of the Interface Hypothesis (IH), this subtle, non-native-like divergence is characterized by divergent knowledge of optionality similar to that found among native speakers. Attempting to understand more completely the development of native-speaker optionality, we also conduct a corpus study of child-directed Spanish from CHILDES and find that, although syntactic theory explains much of the data, it cannot account for all of the variability in the data. Results suggest that children are exposed to apparent optionality from the earliest stages.
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Schoenmakers, Gert-Jan. "Freedom in the Dutch middle-field: Deriving discourse structure at the syntax-pragmatics interface." Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 5, no. 1 (2020). http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.1307.
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Rothman, Jason. "How Pragmatically Odd! Interface Delays and Pronominal Subject Distribution in L2 Spanish." Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 1, no. 2 (January 1, 2008). http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/shll-2008-1022.
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AbstractSorace (2000, 2005) has claimed that while L2 learners can easily acquire properties of L2 narrow syntax they have significant difficulty with regard to interpretation and the discourse distribution of related properties, resulting in so-called residual optionality. However, there is no consensus as to what this difficulty indicates. Is it related to an insurmountable grammatical representational deficit (in the sense of representation deficit approaches; e.g. Beck 1998, Franceschina 2001, Hawkins 2005), is it due to cross-linguistic interference, or is it just a delay due to a greater complexity involved in the acquisition of interface-conditioned properties? In this article, I explore the L2 distribution of null and overt subject pronouns of Englishspeaking learners of L2 Spanish. While intermediate learners clearly have knowledge of the syntax of Spanish null subjects, they do not have target-like pragmatic knowledge of their distribution with overt subjects. The present data demonstrate, however, that this difficulty is overcome at highly advanced stages of L2 development, thus suggesting that properties at the syntax-pragmatics interface are not destined for inevitable fossilization.
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Bohnacker, Ute, and Christina Rosén. "How to start a V2 declarative clause: Transfer of syntax vs. information structure in L2 German." Nordlyd 34, no. 3 (February 26, 2008). http://dx.doi.org/10.7557/12.122.
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This paper discusses V2 word order and information structure in Swedish, German and non-native German. Concentrating on the clause-initial position of V2 declaratives, the ‘prefield’, we investigate the extent of L1 transfer in a closely related L2. The prefield anchors the clause in discourse, and although almost any type of element can occur in this position, naturalistic text corpora of native Swedish and native German show distinct language-specific patterns. Certain types of elements are more common than others in clause-initial position, and their frequencies in Swedish differ substantially from German (subjects, fronted objects, certain adverbs). Nonnative cross-sectional production data from Swedish learners of German at beginner, intermediate and advanced levels are compared with native control data, matched for age and genre (Bohnacker 2005, 2006, Rosén 2006). The learners’ V2 syntax is largely targetlike, but their beginnings of sentences are unidiomatic. They have problems with the language-specific linguistic means that have an impact on information structure: They overapply the Swedish principle of “rheme later” in their L2 German, indicating L1 transfer at the interface of syntax and discourse pragmatics, especially for structures that are frequent in the L1 (subject-initial and expletive-initial clauses, and constructions with <em>så</em> (‘so’) and object <em>det</em> (‘it/that’)).
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Antonova-Unlu, Elena, Li Wei, and Didem Kaya-Soykan. "Interfaces in the returnees’ heritage language: Is the complete (re-)activation possible?" International Journal of Bilingualism, September 8, 2021, 136700692110435. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/13670069211043572.
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Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: The aim of this study is to examine whether the complete (re-)activation of interface domains in the heritage language (HL) is possible or whether interfaces are likely to preserve features typical for the HL even after many years of residing in the country of origin. Design/methodology/approach: We present the group analysis of direct object marking in Turkish, which is a morphology-syntax-pragmatics interface, of Turkish-German returnees, who returned to Turkey after puberty and have been residing in the country for a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 34 years, and compare them with the control group consisting of Turkish speakers who have been living in Turkey all their lives. Data and analysis: The data were collected using a narrative task, a completion task and a grammaticality judgement task, and analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Findings/conclusions: The analysis of the narrative task revealed that the returnee participants used case-marking on direct objects productively depending on the discourse and syntactic position of the direct object in their heritage Turkish. However, their performance on the completion and grammaticality judgement tasks diverged from those of the control group. These findings can be considered as a piece of evidence that interface domains stay obstinate to complete (re-)activation and may preserve features typical for the HL many years after the return to the country of origin. Originality: The study suggests relevance of the Interface Hypothesis to the process of HL (re-)activation. Significance/implications: The study contributes to the research on the HL development of returnees after their return to the country of origin.