Diary null subjects in L2 English: A study on grammatical acceptability

Abstract

The current paper investigates the grammatical acceptability of null subjects in the diary register of L2 English by intermediate and advanced students, L1 speakers of Romanian. Overall results indicate performance that does not surpass chance level, and therefore, a strong conservative preference for overtly realized subjects in diary contexts. However, individual analysis has identified a small group of L2 learners who consistenly scored well above chance in the four experimental conditions (overt subject, null subject in root clause, null subject in embedded clause and null subject in yes-no questions). I discuss several factors that relate to the difficulty L2 learners have with accepting on-target null subjects in the diary register. Quite likely, they never had enough exposure to the relevant input. L2 acquisition slows down when multiple grammars (core and non-core) are identified. Also, subject omission is optional, so the study tested a preference, not a mandatory phenomenon.