Pronominal objects in English–Italian and Spanish–Italian bilingual children

Abstract

This study investigated the role of typological relatedness, language of the community, and age, in predicting similarities and differences between English–Italian, Spanish–Italian bilingual children and their monolingual child and adult counterparts in the acceptability of pre- and postverbal object pronouns in [±focus] contexts in Italian and in English. Cross-linguistic influence occurred in [−focus] contexts as a function of typological relatedness and language of the community. English–Italian bilinguals in the UK accepted pragmatically inappropriate postverbal pronouns in [−focus] contexts in Italian twice as often as all the other groups. Cross-linguistic influence was unidirectional from English to Italian as shown by the categorical rejection of preverbal pronouns in [−focus] contexts in English. In [+focus] contexts, in English no significant differences existed between the monolinguals and the bilinguals in the low accuracy with which they chose pragmatically appropriate stressed pronouns. Similarly, the choice of appropriate pronouns in [+focus] contexts in Italian was problematic for monolingual and bilingual children irrespective of the language of the community and of the bilinguals’ other language. Age was a factor only for the Italian children who approached adultlike performance in [+focus] contexts only by the age of 10. These findings point to the need for a multifaceted approach to account for similarities and differences between the linguistic behavior of bilingual and monolingual children.

Exploring the source of differences and similarities in L1 attrition and heritage speaker competence: Evidence from pronominal resolution

“…In the context of first language attrition or bilingualism the overt pronoun appears to be overused in contexts of topic-continuity where the monolingual speaker would prefer to use a null subject (Tsimpli et al, 2004;Sorace, 2011 and references therein). Interestingly, the overt pronoun is overused even when the two languages are both null subject languages, as shown in Spanish-Italian bilingual production (Filiaci et al, 2013;Serratrice et al, 2011). Although this effect points to pronoun overuse as an effect of bilingualism rather than crosslinguistic influence, it is crucial to point out that the distribution of null vs. overt subject pronouns is not identical even among null subject languages (Iraola Azpiroz and Ezeizabarrena Segurola, 2011;Mayol, 2012).…”

Selectivity in L1 Attrition: Differential Object Marking in Spanish Near-Native Speakers of English

“…Much previous research on second language (L2) acquisition has focused on the influence of the L1 on the L2 (Argyri & Sorace 2007;Belletti et al 2007;Hertel 2003;Hopp 2009;Lozano 2006Lozano , 2009Montrul 2004a;Paradis & Navarro 2003;Rothman 2009;Serratrice et al 2011;Serratrice et al 2004;), but to a much lesser extent on the influence that the L2 might have in the native language (L1) of nonnative speakers. This phenomenon is known as 'L1 attrition', and it refers to the changes in a speaker's L1 as the result of the acquisition of an L2.…”

“…bilingual children, near-native speakers and L1 attriters). Previous research addressed aspects such as the effects of The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10936-015-9372-4 4 semantic or discourse factors in the acquisition of word order (Belletti et al 2007;Hertel 2003;Hopp 2009;Lozano 2006;Montrul 2004a;Wilson 2009), or the influence of pragmatics in the acquisition of null versus overt pronominal subjects and objects (Argyri and Sorace 2007;Belletti et al 2007;Lozano 2009;Montrul 2004b;Paradis and Navarro 2003;Rothman 2009;Serratrice et al 2011;Serratrice et al 2004;Tsimpli et al 2004). Structures that are sensitive to pragmatic or contextual conditions have been an especially privileged ground for research.…”

Bilingual Youth: Spanish‐speakers at the Beginning of the 21st Century

“…Silva‐Corvalán and Walker (), examining the subject expression of a Spanish–English bilingual child between the ages of 1;5 and 2;8, found that he developed subject expression in both languages equally to monolinguals in each language. Serratrice et al () also looked at pronominal expression in Spanish–Italian children. Other studies of linguistic domains among Spanish–English bilingual children include Simon‐Cereijido and Gutierrez‐Clellen (), Mancilla‐Martinez and Vagh (), Shin and VanBuren (), and Uccelli and Páez ().…”