Part of
Structures, Strategies and Beyond: Studies in honour of Adriana BellettiEdited by Elisa Di Domenico, Cornelia Hamann and Simona Matteini
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 223] 2015
► pp. 257–276
Edited by Elisa Di Domenico, Cornelia Hamann and Simona Matteini
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 223] 2015
► pp. 257–276
Resolving pronominal anaphora in real-time
A comparison between Italian native and near-native speakers
This study aims at contributing to research on the comprehension of pronominal subjects by adding novel evidence through an on-line experiment. A self-paced reading task designed for testing antecedent assignment with forward anaphora is used to compare processing of null and overt pronouns in fourteen native speakers (NS) and thirteen near native speakers (NNS) of Italian. Results are compared with data obtained through an off-line task (picture verification task) administered to the same group of experimental subjects. Findings confirm that residual difficulties at near-native level of proficiency still persist. Specifically, a discrepancy emerges between NS and NNS with respect to antecedent assignment in overt pronoun contexts. The contrast between off- and on-line processing data is particularly revealing in that it suggests that divergent patterns between the two populations might be attributed to competition for processing resources between languages rather than specific processing difficulties.
Keywords: anaphora resolution, Near-nativeness, on-line task, processing
References (22)
Belletti, Adriana, Bennati, Elisa & Sorace, Antonella. 2007. Theoretical and developmental issues in the syntax of subjects: Evidence from near-native Italian. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 25: 657–689. 
Carminati, Maria Nella. 2002. The Processing of Italian Subject Pronouns. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Just, Marcel Adam, Carpenter, Patricia & Wooley, Jaqueline. 1982. Paradigms and processes in reading comprehension. Journal of Experimental Psychology (2): 228–238.
Filiaci, Francesca, Sorace, Antonella & Carreiras, Manuel. 2013. Anaphoric biases of null and overt subjects in Italian and Spanish: A cross linguistic comparison. Language and Cognitive Processes.
Harley, Birgit & Wang, William. 1997. The Critical Period Hypothesis: Where are we now? In Tutorials in Bilingualism: Psycholinguistic Perspectives, Annette de Groot & Judith Kroll (eds), 19–52. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Lardiere, Donna. 2009. Some thoughts on a contrastive analysis of features in second language acquisition. Second Language Research 25(2): 173–227.
Long, Michael. 1990. Maturational constraints on language development. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 12(3): 251–85.
Mathôt, Sebastian, Schreij, Daniel & Theeuwes, Jan. 2012. OpenSesame: An open source, graphical experiment builder for the social sciences. Behavior Research Methods 44(2): 314–324.
Montrul, Silvina. 2004. Subject and object expression in Spanish heritage Speakers: A case of morphosyntactic convergence. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 7: 125–142.
Müller, Natasha & Hulk, Aafke. 2001. Crosslinguistic influence in bilingual language acquisition: Italian and French as recipient languages. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 4: 1–22.
Roberts, Lisa & Felser, Claudia. 2011. Plausibility and recovery from garden paths in L2 sentence processing. Applied Psycholinguistics 32: 299–331.
Roberts, Leah, Gullberg, Marianne, & Indefrey, Peter. 2008. Online pronoun resolution in L2 discourse: L1 influence and general learner effects. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 30: 333–357.
Serratrice, Ludovica, Antonella, Sorace & Paoli, Sandra. 2004. Transfer at the syntax-pragmatics interface: Subjects and objects in Italian-English bilingual and monolingual acquisition. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 7: 183–206.
Serratrice, Ludovica, Antonella, Sorace, Francesca, Filiaci & Michela, Baldo. 2009. Bilingual children’s sensitivity to specificity and genericity: Evidence from metalinguistic awareness. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 12(2): 239–257.
Sorace, Antonella. 2003. Ultimate L2 attainment. In Handbook of Second Language Acquisition, Michael Long & Catherine Doughty (eds), 130–151. Oxford: Blackwell.
. 2005. Selective optionality in language development. In Syntax and Variation. Recording the Biological and the Social [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 265], Leonie Cornips & Karen P. Corrigan (eds), 55–80. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
. 2011. Pinning down the concept of interface in bilingualism. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 1: 1–33.
Sorace, Antonella & Filiaci, Francesca. 2006. Anaphora resolution in near native speakers of Italian. Second Language Research 22(3): 339–368.
Tsimpli Ianthi Maria, Sorace, Antonella, Heycock, Caroline & Filiaci, Francesca. 2004. First language attrition and syntactic subject: The role of discourse pragmatics in the acquisition of subjects. Applied Psycholinguistics 8(3): 257–277.
Tsimpli, Ianthi Maria & Sorace, Antonella. 2006. Differentaiting Interfaces: L2 performance in syntax-semantics and syntax-discourse phenomena. BUCLD Proceedings 30, David Bamman, Tatiana Magnitskaia & Colleen Zaller (eds), 653–664. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press.
White, Lydia. 2009. Some questions about feature re-assembly. Commentary on Lardiere. Second Language Research 25: 343–348.
White, Lydia & Genesee, Fred. 1996. How native is near-native? The issue of ultimate attainment in adult second language acquisition. Second Language Research 12: 238–265.
Cited by (1)
Cited by one other publication
Di Domenico, Elisa & Ioli Baroncini
2019. Age of Onset and Dominance in the Choice of Subject Anaphoric Devices: Comparing Natives and Near-Natives of Two Null-Subject Languages. Frontiers in Psychology 9 
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 24 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.