ANAPHORA RESOLUTION IN L2 ENGLISH

Carla Contemori · Ohood Omar H Asiri · Elva Deida Perea Irigoyen

37 citations0/0 files storedStudies in Second Language Acquisition

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EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning Second Language Acquisition and Learning Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism

Abstract

Abstract We test the interpretation of pronominal forms in L2 speakers of English whose L1 is Spanish. Previous research on learners of nonnull subject languages has shown conflicting results. The aim of the present study is to reconcile previous evidence and shed light on the factors that determine learners’ difficulty to interpret pronominal forms in the L2. In six comprehension experiments, we found that intermediate L2 speakers did not show increased difficulty compared to native speakers in integrating multiple sources of information (syntactic, discourse, pragmatic) to resolve ambiguous pronouns in intrasentential anaphora and cataphora conditions. However, we also found that when two referents with equal prominence are introduced using a conjoined noun phrase in the preceding context, the learner’s performance is significantly different than the performance of the native speakers, both in intrasentential and intersentential anaphora. We suggest that L2 speakers may encounter difficulties evaluating the salience of the antecedents during pronoun resolution.

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1991Accessing noun-phrase antecedents 2011Pinning down the concept of “interface” in bilingualism 1990Accessing noun-phrase antecedents 1995Language Contact and Change: Spanish in Los Angeles 2007Theoretical and developmental issues in the syntax of subjects: Evidence from near-native Italian 2010How Speakers Refer: The Role of Accessibility 2008Discourse conditions on subject pronoun realization: Testing the linguistic intuitions of older bilingual children 2002The processing of Italian subject pronouns

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2021Microvariation in the division of labor between null- and overt-subject pronouns: the case of Italian and Spanish 2019Changing comprehenders’ pronoun interpretations: Immediate and cumulative priming at the discourse level in L2 and native speakers of English

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