Knowledge and Processing of Subject-related Discourse Properties in L2 Near-native Speakers of Spanish, L1 Farsi

Input effects across domains: The case of Greek subjects in child heritage language

“…In both studies, Greek bilinguals were shown to differ significantly from their monolingual peers in the rate of nonfelicitous preverbal subjects, but not in the rate of non-felicitous overt subject pronouns in -TS. At the same time, these results set Greek bilinguals apart from bilingual learners of other null subject languages such as Italian and Spanish, who, with the exception of high proficiency speakers (Montrul and Rodríguez-Louro, 2006;Rothman, 2009a) and the near natives of Judy (2015) and Judy and Rothman (2014), have been repeatedly shown to overextend the use of overt pronouns into pragmatically infelicitous contexts (for Italian-English bilinguals, see, amongst others, Belletti et al, 2007;Serratrice et al, 2004; for Spanish-English bilinguals, see Montrul, 2004;Paradis and Navarro, 2003).…”

“…Interestingly, non-felicitous uses of null subjects have also been reported among these populations (Clements and Domínguez 2017;Domínguez, 2013;Montrul, 2004;Montrul and Rodríguez-Louro, 2006;Rothman, 2009a;Wolleb, 2013) suggesting that cross-linguistic transfer might not be the sole factor for non-convergence in the syntax-discourse domain. This possibility is further supported by studies showing that bilinguals speaking two null subject languages, with similar discourse conditions underlying pronominal subject realization, can also be challenged by the distribution of null and overt subjects in their L2 (for L1-Spanish-L2-Italian, see Bini, 1993; for L1-Farsi-L2-Spanish, see Judy 2015;Judy and Rothman, 2014; for L1-Greek-L2-Spanish, see Lozano, 2006;Margaza and Bel, 2006; for simultaneous Italian-Spanish bilinguals, see . In light of these results, other factors, including input quantity, have been hypothesized to modulate the vulnerability of the syntax-discourse domain (see, amongst others, Sorace, 2011;.…”

“…Italian, see Bini, 1993; for L1 Farsi-L2 Spanish, see Judy 2015 andJudy &for L1 Greek-L2 Spanish, see Lozano, 2006 andMargaza &Bel, 2006; for simultaneous Italian-Spanish bilinguals, see . In light of these results, other factors, including input quantity, have been hypothesized to modulate the vulnerability of the syntax-discourse domain (Sorace, 2011;, among others).…”

“…The predictions of this hypothesis have been tested against different types of bilingual populations (Sorace, 2011), including heritage speakers (Montrul & Polinsky, 2011), with some studies supporting the inherent complexity of the syntax-discourse domain (Belletti, Bennati & Sorace, 2007;Flores, 2012;Sorace & Filiaci, 2006;Montrul, 2004;Tsimpli, Sorace, Heycock & Filiaci, 2004, among others) and others indicating that syntax-discourse phenomena are not predetermined areas for fossilization (Domínguez, 2013;Donaldson, 2012;Judy, 2015;Judy & Rothman, 2014;Leal, Rothman, & Slabakova, 2014;Montrul & Rodríguez-Louro, 2006;Rothman, 2009a, among others).…”

“…To address this question, Sorace and colleagues have proposed the Interface Hypothesis (IH), an influential account within generative approaches to language acquisition, which predicts that morphosyntactic phenomena regulated by discourse–pragmatic conditions are more likely to lead to non-native outcomes than strictly syntactic aspects of the language (see Sorace, 2006, 2011, 2012; Sorace and Filiaci, 2006; Sorace and Serratrice, 2009; Tsimpli and Sorace, 2006; for an overview and critical discussion of the IH, see Montrul, 2011; White, 2011). The predictions of this hypothesis have been tested against different types of bilingual populations (Sorace, 2011), including heritage speakers (Montrul and Polinsky, 2011), with some studies supporting the inherent complexity of the syntax–discourse domain (see, amongst others, Belletti et al, 2007; Flores, 2012; Montrul, 2004; Sorace and Filiaci, 2006; Tsimpli et al, 2004) and others indicating that syntax–discourse phenomena are not predetermined areas for fossilization (see, amongst others, Domínguez, 2013; Donaldson, 2012; Judy, 2015; Judy and Rothman, 2014; Leal et al, 2014; Montrul and Rodríguez-Louro, 2006; Rothman, 2009a).…”