Information structure in narratives and the role of grammaticised knowledge

Carroll, Mary; Lambert, Monique

doi:10.1075/sibil.26.13car

Cited by 51 publications

(53 citation statements)

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“…The acquisition of information structure by adult L2 learners has previously been examined as it relates to the syntactic constructions employed by L2 learners in discourse and narrative (e.g., Carroll et al 2000). Some previous studies have used production data to examine the acquisition of finiteness in L2 learners of French (Schlyter 2003) and German (Dimroth et al 2003;Dimroth 2008); others have studied anaphora in narrative (Carroll and Lambert 2003), the production of topic markers (Ferdinand 2002), and the grammatical means used to organize information in learner varieties of German and English (Carroll & von Stutterheim 2003). While many existing studies have examined the assignment of information structure to sentences, fewer studies have looked at L2 learners' ability to identify and process anomalies in the information structure of a sentence, and those that have looked at this have targeted L2 learners' sensitivity to information structure distinctions communicated by word order (e.g., Wilson et al 2007 for German; Kaiser & Trueswell 2004 for Finnish).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Judgments of information structure in L2 French: Nativelike performance and the Critical Period Hypothesis

Reichle¹

2010

IRAL - International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Judgments of information structure in L2 French: Nativelike performance and the Critical Period Hypothesis

Reichle¹

2010

IRAL - International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching

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“…This has been documented for L2 oral narratives, descriptions and written texts by a number of functionalistoriented researchers, concerning, for example, referent introduction and maintenance, narrative perspective and textual cohesion (e.g. Carroll & von Stutterheim 1993Mauranen 1996;Carroll & Lambert 2003). It has even been suggested that while L2 learners may acquire the language-specific linguistic means that have an impact on discourse pragmatics, their role in information organisation and information structuring will never become fully targetlike: They retain core principles and patterns of their native language (Carroll & Lambert 2003;Carroll & von Stutterheim 2003:372, 394-398;von Stutterheim 2003:202).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Common to them all is that learners at high proficiency levels continue to grapple with the pragmatically appropriate distributional pattern (e.g. Carroll & Lambert 2003;Carroll & von Stutterheim 2003;Hertel 2003;Lozano 2006;Sorace & Filiaci 2006;Belletti et al 2007;Rothman 2009). Since in many of these studies the highest-proficiency group diverges from the native controls, some researchers have drawn the conclusion that information structuring in L2 acquisition never becomes fully native-like (e.g.…”

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confidence: 99%

The clause-initial position in L2 Swedish declaratives: Word order variation and discourse pragmatics

Bohnacker¹

2010

Nord J Linguist

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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 informationstructural 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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“…It is assumed that more prominence is accorded in information structure to entities, such as the sheet of paper, when they alone form the content of a clause, as in the examples with the empty subject: He falls in a new world; there is paper everywhere (see in detail Carroll, 2008;Carroll & Lambert, 2003). The preferred means in reference introduction are linked to the way in which referents are reintroduced within the time line, the focus of the present comparison.…”

Section: International Journal Of Bilingualism 15(2)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Speakers were given the same visual input (a short silent film, for example) and were asked to tell what happened. Research within this framework has shown that the organization and embedding of linguistic form in context is driven grammatically in the domains studied, and poses problems for learners even at very advanced levels of adult second language acquisition (Carroll & Lambert, 2003, 2006Carroll, Murcia Serra, Watorek, & Bendiscioli, 2000;Carroll, Rossdeutscher, Lambert, & von Stutterheim, 2008;Carroll & von Stutterheim, 2003;von Stutterheim & Lambert, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing bilingual attainment: macrostructural planning in narratives

Flecken

2011

International Journal of Bilingualism

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The present study addresses questions concerning bilinguals' attainment in the two languages by investigating the extent to which early bilinguals manage to apply the information structure required in each language when producing a complex text. In re-narrating the content of a film, speakers have to break down the perceived series of dynamic situations and structure relevant information into units that are suited for linguistic expression. The analysis builds on typological studies of Germanic and Romance languages which investigate the role of grammaticized concepts in determining core features in information structure. It takes a global perspective in that it focuses on factors that determine information selection and information structure that hold in macrostructural terms for the text as a whole (factors driving information selection, the temporal frame used to locate events on the time line, and the means used in reference management). A first comparison focuses on Dutch and German monolingual native speakers and shows that despite overall typological similarities, there are subtle though systematic differences between the two languages in the aforementioned areas of information structure. The analyses of the bilinguals focus on their narratives in both languages, and compares the patterns found to those found in the monolingual narratives. Findings show that the method used provides insights into the individual bilingual's attainment in the two languages and identifies either balanced levels of attainment, patterns showing higher degrees of conformity with one of the languages, as well as bilingual-specific patterns of performance.

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Information structure in narratives and the role of grammaticised knowledge

Cited by 51 publications

References 0 publications

Judgments of information structure in L2 French: Nativelike performance and the Critical Period Hypothesis

Judgments of information structure in L2 French: Nativelike performance and the Critical Period Hypothesis

The clause-initial position in L2 Swedish declaratives: Word order variation and discourse pragmatics

Assessing bilingual attainment: macrostructural planning in narratives

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