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Article published In:
Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 37:2 (2024) ► pp.591–627

Direct object anaphora resolution in L1 English-L2 Spanish

Referring clitics and DPs

ORCID logo | Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
This study investigates the written production of direct object (DO) anaphora in L2 Spanish by adult English native speakers. It focuses on the use of clitics and full DPs in topic continuity, where highly salient topics are typically recovered by clitics in native Spanish. A combination of pragmatic factors in subject anaphora resolution (referential ambiguity and distance) and morphosyntactic factors in the acquisition of clitics (gender and animacy) was analyzed in 5 subcorpora from the CEDEL2 (Corpus Escrito del Español L2). Following Learner Corpus Research methodology, 773 anaphoric DOs and their antecedents were tagged across 150 texts (from low-intermediate to upper-advanced proficiency). Results showed that as learner proficiency increases, the predominant anaphoric strategy shifts from redundant DP overuse to felicitous pronominalization. Clitic avoidance is the general strategy intimately related to clitics’ morphosyntactic deficits at advanced levels, but also to pragmatic principles supporting the Pragmatic Principles Violation Hypothesis (Lozano, 2016).
Keywords: pronominal reference, anaphora resolution, L2 Spanish, clitics, learner corpus research, direct object, SLA, CEDEL2
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Direct object referring expressions in Spanish
    • 2.1Spanish direct object clitics
    • 2.2Pragmatic factors in DO reference
  • 3.Previous studies
    • 3.1Anaphora resolution in L2 acquisition
    • 3.2Spanish DO clitics in L2 acquisition
    • 3.3Learner corpus research: Using CEDEL2 for SLA
    • 3.4Research questions and hypotheses
  • 4.The Study
    • 4.1Methods
      • 4.1.1Corpora from CEDEL 2
      • 4.1.2Data annotation and analysis
        • Anaphor form
        • Anaphor pragmatics
        • Referent morphology
        • Potential number of antecedents
        • Antecedent form
        • Antecedent function
        • Distance
      • 4.2Results
        • RQ1:How does DO anaphora develop in L1 English-L2 Spanish learners at intermediate and advanced levels? What mechanisms are used by learners and native speakers as anaphoric expressions?
        • RQ2:Factors that determine the use of distinct DO REs: Referential distance and potential referential ambiguity
          • Distance
          • Potential referential ambiguity
        • RQ3.Pragmatic felicity
        • RQ4:The effect of referent’s gender and animacy
      • 4.3Final discussion
    • 5.Conclusions and further research
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 27 October 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/resla.22014.gar
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Cited by one other publication

Lozano, Cristóbal & Teresa Quesada
2023. What corpus data reveal about the Position of Antecedent Strategy: anaphora resolution in Spanish monolinguals and L1 English-L2 Spanish bilinguals. Frontiers in Psychology 14 DOI logo

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