Studies on anaphora resolution in L1 Spanish-L2 English and L1 English-L2 Spanish adult learnerscombining corpus and experimental methods

Resumen

Anaphora Resolution (AR) is a phenomenon at the syntax-discourse interface that has recently received attention in the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA). AR relates to how different referring expressions (REs) (i.e., null pronouns, overt pronouns and repeated noun phrases (NPs)) refer to their antecedents in discourse. Importantly, there are multiple factors that constrain the choice of such REs. AR is a relevant phenomenon for SLA because its acquisition is particularly problematic for adult bilinguals like L2 learners (L2ers) (amongst other bilingual populations) due to the difficulties in integrating simultaneously syntactic and discursive properties, as the Interface Hypothesis (IH) proposed (Sorace, 2011; Sorace & Filiaci, 2006). A key aspect in the investigation of AR is language typology. There is a typological distinction between null subject languages, like Spanish, and non-null subject languages, like English, which are the target languages in this dissertation. While null subject languages allow the alternation of null and overt pronouns in subject position, non-null subject languages require an overt pronoun in subject position, though null pronouns are restricted to a particular context (i.e., topic continuity and coordinate contexts). Importantly, the L2 English and L2 Spanish literature on AR (cf. Lozano, 2021 for an overview) has traditionally investigated AR following different approaches (i.e., generative approaches vs. cognitive approaches) and methods (i.e., experimental methods vs. corpus-based methods). In particular, the L2 English experimental literature typically reports L2 English L2ers’ ungrammatical production of null pronouns (inter alia: Pladevall Ballester, 2013; Prentza, 2014), while the L2 English production literature reports that L2ers are overexplicit (i.e., they produce more explicit REs than necessary) (inter alia: Hendriks, 2003; Kang, 2004). By contrast, both the experimental and production L2 Spanish studies report that L2 Spanish L2ers have difficulties acquiring the pragmatic constrains of AR and are overexplicit (a.k.a., redundant) (inter alia: Judy, 2015; Lozano, 2009, 2016; Pérez-Leroux & Glass, 1999). Crucially, L2 English and L2 Spanish studies come from different traditions and use different methods, but, to our knowledge, there is no study investigating the multiple factors that affect AR in a unified and systematic manner and in a bidirectional way (L1 Spanish – L2 English vs. L1 English – L2 Spanish) across different proficiency levels. Thus, this dissertation aims to investigate the L2 acquisition of AR by analysing multiple factors (i.e., information status, activated antecedents, syntactic configuration, Position of Antecedent Strategy (PAS), verb semantics, characterhood, and picture transition) from different theoretical perspectives (i.e., generative, cognitive and pragmatic) and by using different methods (i.e., corpus and experiments). Additionally, AR is investigated bidirectionally by including mirror-image language pairs (L1 Spanish – L2 English vs. L1 English – L2 Spanish) and also developmentally by including different proficiency levels (from beginner to very-advanced). To achieve this, we conducted four independent corpus-based studies and one experimental study to ascertain: i) how the multiple factors constrain the production and comprehension of REs; ii) how the acquisition of REs takes place developmentally in L2 English and L2 Spanish L2ers across proficiency levels; and iii) how production and comprehension data can be accounted for by different theoretical models as the Interface Hypothesis (IH) (Sorace, 2011) and the Pragmatic Principles Violation Hypothesis (PPVH) (Lozano, 2016). Crucially, our corpus-based findings showed the importance of investigating AR in natural production (i.e., corpus) because we accounted for multiple factors that constrain the production of REs in discourse in a unified manner. Notably, we showed that the experimental literature has overestimated some contexts (e.g., PAS scenarios), while there are other relevant factors affecting AR that have been overlooked, but are importantly addressed in this dissertation. Additionally, our corpus findings provided with a wider picture of AR and informed about the most relevant factors that were then implemented in an experiment following a cyclic fashion. In particular, departing from some key corpus findings, we tested topic continuity and coordinate contexts and the number of activated antecedents experimentally and we found that the comprehension of REs is partially affected by these factors. Overall, our results revealed that L1 Spanish – L2 English and L1 English – L2 Spanish L2ers were redundant and produced more explicit REs than necessary, but there was an asymmetry in their acquisition of REs depending on the L1-L2 language pair. In particular, L1 English – L2 Spanish L2ers did not transfer null pronouns from their L1 Spanish and eventually showed native-like attainment at C2 level in a particular context (topic continuity and coordinate contexts), while L1 English – L2 Spanish L2ers transferred null pronouns from their L1 English (i.e., null pronouns in topic continuity and coordinate contexts) and did not show native-like attainment even at very-advanced levels. Therefore, our findings partially confirmed the IH because native-like attainment is possible, but depends on the L1-L2 language pair and the information-status context (topic continuity vs. topic shift). Finally, our findings confirm the PPVH because L2ers (across language pairs and groups) were redundant and violated the Informativeness/Economy principle, but were not ambiguous so they observed the Clarity/Manner Principle. References Hendriks, H. (2003). Using nouns for reference maintenance: A seeming contradiction in L2 discourse. In A. Giacalone (Ed.), Typology and Second Language Acquisition (pp. 291–326). Mouton De Gruyter. Judy, T. (2015). Knowledge and processing of subject-related discourse properties in L2 near-native speakers of Spanish, L1 Farsi. In The Acquisition of Spanish in Understudied Language Pairings (pp. 169–200). John Benjamins. Kang, J. Y. (2004). Telling a coherent story in a foreign language: Analysis of Korean EFL learners’ referential strategies in oral narrative discourse. Journal of Pragmatics, 36(11), 1975–1990. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2004.03.007 Lozano, C. (2009). Selective deficits at the syntax-discourse interface: Evidence from the CEDEL2 corpus. In N. Snape, Y. I. Leung, & M. Sharwood Smith (Eds.), Representational Deficits in SLA: Studies in honor of Roger Hawkins (pp. 127–166). John Benjamins Publishing Company. https://doi.org/10.1075/lald.47.09loz Lozano, C. (2016). Pragmatic principles in anaphora resolution at the syntax-discourse interface: Advanced English learners of Spanish in the CEDEL2 corpus. In M. Alonso-Ramos (Ed.), Spanish Learner Corpus Research: State of the Art and Perspectives (pp. 236–265). John Benjamins Publishing Company. https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.78.09loz Lozano, C. (2021). Anaphora Resolution in Second Language Acquisition. In Oxford Bibliographies in Linguistics. Oxford University Press. https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/ Pérez-Leroux, A. T., & Glass, W. R. (1999). Null anaphora in Spanish second language acquisition: Probabilistic versus generative approaches. Second Language Research, 15(2), 220–249. https://doi.org/10.1191/026765899676722648 Pladevall Ballester, E. (2013). Adult instructed SLA of English subject properties. Canadian Journal of Linguistics, 58(3). https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008413100002668 Prentza, A. (2014). Pronominal Subjects in English L2 Acquisition and in L1 Greek: Issues of Interpretation, Use and L1 Transfer. In Major Trends in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics 2 Selected Papers from the 20th ISTAL (Lavidas Nikolaos, Alexiou Thomaï, Sougari, Areti Maria, pp. 369–386). Versita, Versita Ltd. Sorace, A. (2011). Pinning down the concept of “interface” in bilingualism. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 1(1), 1–33. https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.1.1.01sor Sorace, A., & Filiaci, F. (2006). Anaphora resolution in near-native speakers of Italian. Second Language Research, 22(3), 339–368. https://doi.org/10.1191/0267658306sr271oa