Null Subjects in Monolingual and Bilingual, Typical and Atypical Development
an exploratory study
We present an exploratory test on the production of null subjects by 13
monolinguals acquiring Capeverdean, 6 bilingual speakers of Capeverdean
and European Portuguese with typical language development and 7 bilingual
speakers with SLI features. Capeverdean does not allow null referential subjects
in matrix clauses. European Portuguese, on the other hand, is a prototypical
pro-drop language. The results from an elicited production task revealed
that the production of null subjects does not appear to constitute a distinctive
feature for bilingual children with language impairment. As for the contrast
between the early abandon of subject drop by Capeverdean monolinguals and
the maintenance of null subjects among the bilinguals in both languages, the
latter confirms that this is an area of interference.
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