Overt Pronouns Research Articles

The interpretation of null and overt subject pronouns in Spanish compared to Greek and Italian

In recent years, several studies have suggested that Null Subject Languages (NSLs) do not exhibit uniform behaviour in all respects. This paper aims to determine whether the interpretation of null and overt subject pronouns in Spanish differs from that in two other NSLs: Italian and Greek. To this end, we replicated the sentence interpretation experiment conducted by Torregrossa et al. (2020) on Greek and Italian to obtain a fully comparable set of data.The results indicate that Spanish differs significantly from both Italian and Greek in the interpretation of null and overt pronouns. Spanish participants accept null subjects referring to both subject and object antecedents to the same extent. The same pattern is observed for overt subject pronouns. To explain the observed differences, we propose that two properties of its grammar influence the interpretation of null subjects and overt pronouns in Spanish: i) a flexible word order, allowing for SVO, VSO, and VOS; and ii) the existence of differential object marking (DOM). We hypothesise that these two factors may affect antecedent selection, thereby partially accounting for the differences observed among the languages under consideration.

Pronoun interpretation in intermediate-advanced L2 English speakers: L2 to L1 cross-linguistic effects

Aims and objectives: L2 learners who speak a null subject (L1 Spanish) and a non-null subject language (L2 English) may experience cross-linguistic interference from the L2 on L1 pronoun interpretation. In this study, we test pronoun interpretation in the L1 and L2 of adult learners, in comparison with two groups of monolingual speakers, to assess if L1 pronoun interpretation can change as a result of L2 acquisition at intermediate-advanced levels of L2 proficiency and in the absence of long L2 immersion. Methodology: A group of L2 English speakers (L1 Spanish) participated in two offline sentence comprehension tasks where they interpreted pronouns in the L1 and L2. The results are compared with English and Spanish monolingual speakers. Data and analysis: We find that adult English learners comprehend pronouns in their L1 (Spanish) differently than Spanish monolingual speakers, demonstrating a strong subject bias for interpreting null and overt pronouns. In addition, we show that pronoun interpretation patterns acquired in the L2 explain the changes to L1 interpretation biases. Conclusions: The results of this study significantly advance the understanding of the factors that contribute to bilingual language comprehension, showing the permeability of the L1 comprehension system at the discourse level as soon as the L2 sets in.

The Acquisition of Pragmatically Constrained Japanese Pronouns by L1 English Learners: Results from a Context Translation Task

The allocation of explicit and implicit pronouns and the literature extensively discusses the syntactic and pragmatic conditions that permit and necessitate the use of overt and null pronouns in Romance languages, such as Spanish and Italian. This topic has been explored by various researchers, including Alonso-Ovalle and D’Introno (2000), Fernández-Soriano (1989), Luján (1987, 1999), Montalbetti (1984), Rigau (1986, 1988), and Rizzi (1997). Rothman (2009) argues that the employment of overt subject pronouns in Spanish is pragmatically unusual, except in select discursive situations when their existence contributes more to semantic interpretation than just agreement features. In Japanese, null forms of pronouns are more common than overt pronouns, as observed by Martin (1976). However, like Spanish, the distribution of pronouns in Japanese is influenced by both syntax and pragmatics. In pro-drop languages, overt pronouns, as well as lexical subjects, have the role of resolving any potential uncertainties that may occur when new referents are introduced in a conversation.

Overt PRO in Gã

This paper presents data from Gã (Kwa, Niger-Congo language spoken in Ghana) that show that controlled subjects of non-finite predicates must be overt in this language. The presence of an overt pronominal subject in a non-finite embedded clause is surprising from the perspective of languages such as English and French, where such subjects must be covert (PRO). We provide evidence that the overt pronoun in Gã patterns with obligatorily controlled PRO (Hornstein 1999; Landau 2013) and argue for the minimal pronoun analysis of Kratzer (2009).

Noncanonical Obligatory Control

AbstractIntensive research on Obligatory Control (OC) in the past 2 decades has revealed a rich crosslinguistic terrain of deviations from the classical format. Five types of noncanonical OC are surveyed here: Finite control, controlled overt pronouns, partial control, proxy control and crossed control. Each one is described and illustrated, paying attention to methodological difficulties in establishing its characteristic empirical signature. We then turn to a critical assessment of leading theoretical accounts of these phenomena, pointing to merits and faults, and indicating how they can be integrated with broader concerns of syntactic theory.

Processing dissociations between raising and control in Brazilian Portuguese

Abstract Generative approaches to syntactic control have traditionally viewed it as a distinct component of the grammar, one that governs the interpretation and distribution of the empty category (EC) PRO. However, the Movement Theory of Control (MTC) proposes that control should instead be conceived of as a form of raising, with both sentence types involving the EC DP/NP Trace. In addition to theoretical arguments, some behavioral research on antecedent reactivation has demonstrated that different ECs reactivate their antecedents to different degrees and at different points in the time course of comprehension. In this study, we used a cross-modal repetition priming paradigm to examine antecedent reactivation in Brazilian Portuguese. We found significantly greater activation at the gap position in raising sentences and in those with overt pronouns as compared to (exhaustive) control sentences, consistent with the standard account of raising and the traditional view of control as involving a distinct EC. Additionally, we found some evidence for a differentiation between exhaustive and partial control structures. Overall, our results suggest that 1) similar linguistic mechanisms are employed in the processing of sentences that involve overt pronouns and DP/NP traces, and 2) different mechanisms are employed in the processing of raising and control structures, a finding we view as inconsistent with the MTC.

Obligatorily Overt PRO in San Martín Peras Mixtec

This article presents obligatory control constructions in San Martín Peras Mixtec, a language in which PRO must be exponed with an overt pronoun. I propose a morphological analysis of this phenomenon in which this language lacks a null allomorph for bound minimal pronouns (Kratzer 2009, Safir 2014, Landau 2015, 2018), posited to underlie silent PRO in other languages. This suggests that null exponence ought not be ontologically tethered to PRO’s distribution or interpretation; rather, it can be reduced to the routine functions of language-specific contextual allomorphy.

Pronoun interpretation in Italian

Abstract We explore potential effects of prosody on pronoun interpretation in Italian, building on previous research which has shown that second language learners/users (L2ers) assign non-target interpretations to overt pronouns. We investigate effects of contrastive stress and pause, proposing that these will result in changes to default antecedent preferences for overt and null pronouns, for L2ers and for native speakers. An experiment was conducted, involving English-speaking L2ers of Italian and Italian native speakers. Participants were presented with auditory stimuli like Lorenzo ha scritto a Roberto quando Ø/lui si è trasferito a Torino ‘Lorenzo wrote to Roberto when (he) moved to Turin’ and indicated their preferred antecedent for the pronoun. Overt versus null pronouns, presence versus absence of stress on overt pronouns, and presence versus absence of pause between clauses were manipulated. The results yielded significant differences for antecedent choices between null and overt pronouns, consistent with earlier literature. In addition, stress was significant for both groups. Implications of a prosodic approach to ambiguity resolution are discussed.

The Use of Pronoun Interpretation Biases in L1 Spanish: The Role of Language Proficiency, Exposure, and Use in Heritage Speakers

Abstract In an offline sentence comprehension task, we test the interpretation biases for null and overt pronouns and anaphoric and cataphoric pronouns in heritage speakers (HSs) whose first language (L1) is Spanish (L2 English). Previous studies have shown that Spanish HSs can interpret overt anaphoric pronouns differently than monolingual speakers. A question that remains unexplored is how HSs interpret cataphoric pronouns and how L1 experience affects pronoun resolution biases in these individuals. We recruited 48 HSs and 48 monolingual Spanish speakers. The results show that pronoun interpretation in HSs differs from monolingual biases, with HSs demonstrating a higher subject antecedent preference for anaphoric and cataphoric pronouns. The results further show that a continuous measure of language proficiency, exposure, and use may contribute to explaining pronoun interpretation biases in heritage Spanish. We discuss the findings in light of recent research demonstrating that language experience can contribute to shape discourse patterns.

Overt and null subjects in Bulgarian: comparing monolingual adults and children to child heritage speakers in Germany in their use of Bulgarian

ABSTRACT This study investigates the use of overt and null subjects in Bulgarian in child heritage speakers with L2 German. The alternation of overt and null pronominal subjects in null-subject languages like Bulgarian depends on grammatical and discourse conditions and contrasts with German. Oral narratives were elicited in Bulgarian, comparing the performance of the heritage children to that of monolingual children and adults. Overall 68 Bulgarian narratives of 39 speakers were analysed as to the use of overt and null pronominal subjects in topic-continuity and topic-shift contexts. The results reveal similar subject realisation for all speakers, supporting early acquisition of null-subject grammars. Analyses of topic-continuity and -shift contexts showed similar overall patterns in children’s and adults’ subject use, with children producing somewhat more overt subjects in topic-continuity and ambiguous overt pronouns in topic-shift contexts than adults. However, the bilinguals used significantly more ambiguous null subjects than monolinguals. These results suggest that fine-grained discourse constraints of null-subject grammars are more difficult for bilinguals to acquire and maintain. The near adult-like performance of the bilinguals in some contexts can be attributed to the fact that most of them were Bulgarian-dominant and received non-attrited parental input. Differences are also attributable to cross-linguistic influence.

The interpretation of overt subject pronominals in Turkish

This study explores the interpretation of co-indexation between overt subject pronominals, specifically o and kendisi, with quantified/wh-word antecedents among native Turkish speakers. The research employs a task designed to elicit responses that either force a bound or disjoint interpretation within biased contexts. The findings reveal that o and kendisi are not interchangeable within the same context. A closer examination unveils that the interpretation of o is governed by certain syntactic constraints, although target-deviant interpretations are observed. In contrast, kendisi is more likely to be interpreted as a bound pronoun, even though both bound and disjoint interpretations are syntactically accessible. This shows that the constraint governing the binding of overt subject pronominals to quantified/wh-word antecedents, known as the Overt Pronoun Constraint, is operative for o but not for kendisi. The distinction in the behavior of these pronominals can be attributed to the diffrences in their syntactic configurations: o is costly configured than kendisi, hence displaying asymmetry across quantified/wh-word antecedents. Since the binding relations of kendisi is similar to pro, it is more prone to binding by the matrix subject.

« Je t’aime. – Moi aussi (je t’aime). »

In dialogs like “I love you – I do too”, the pronoun in the ellipsis site can be interpreted as dependent on the preceding overt pronoun (i.e. I do love you too). This dependency can neither be explained by Kaplan’s (1977/1989) theory implying the fixity of indexicals, nor by the various theories of bound indexicals: due to mismatch in person features, the identity in the ellipsis is not sloppy, but supersloppy in such cases. Based on experimentally collected English data, I proposed in Charnavel (2019) to reduce supersloppy readings to sloppy readings by hypothesizing that indexicals can be interpreted as context-dependent descriptions containing a bindable pronoun, i.e. as indexical e-type pronouns (e.g. you as my interlocutor). But due to some limitations in my English data, I left open two interrelated issues: (i) whether supersloppy readings, like sloppy readings, rely on focus blindness to presuppositions of bound pronouns; (ii) whether supersloppy readings can be analyzed in the same way in ellipsis and focus constructions. I here use novel French data to settle these two issues partly based on some morphosyntactic specificities of French. By clarifying the analysis of supersloppy readings, this provides new insight into the theories of indexicals and e-type pronouns.

On null-subject languages and the Overt Pronoun Constraint: A comparison of English, Mandarin and Japanese

This study reports on findings from two experiments investigating the interpretive patterns of overt pronouns in an embedded subject position with three types of matrix subjects (i.e. a referential NP, a quantified NP, or a wh-phrase) in Mandarin, English, and Japanese. According to the Overt Pronoun Constraint (OPC), overt pronouns in null-subject languages cannot have bound-variable interpretation, i.e. they cannot be bound by a quantified NP or a wh-phrase. This constraint has been assumed to be universal and accessible for learners at early stages of second language (L2) acquisition. The results of Experiment 1 show that, although Mandarin is a null-subject language, Mandarin and English native speakers as well as L2 learners of both languages demonstrated similar patterns of interpretation, accepting both coreference readings and bound-variable readings, the latter being contrary to the prediction of the OPC. The results of Experiment 2 show that Japanese native speakers differed from Mandarin native speakers in that the former accepted both coreference readings and bound-variable readings at chance levels. These findings clearly demonstrate that the OPC cannot be characterized as a property of null-subject languages generally, given the lack of effect in Mandarin, and there are cross-linguistic variations in interpretive patterns for overt pronouns among languages that exhibit the effect.

Third-person overt pronoun and zero reference in Estonian. Insights from two experiments

This study reports two experiments that investigate the variation between two Estonian third-person referential devices – zero reference vs. the overt pronoun ta. First, in a speech-restoration paradigm (Experiment 1), we test whether the structure of a reference chain affects referential choice. Second, drawing on Experiment 1, we designed an acceptability judgement task (Experiment 2) to explore a possible systematic variation between zero reference vs. overt pronoun in different sentential configurations (two separated sentences vs. one coordinated sentence). Our findings suggest that sentential configuration affects referential choice. Thus, our study accords with earlier observations that salience-only accounts cannot fully explain referential choice. Furthermore, this study supports the form-specific account of reference, by showing that zero reference is more sensitive to sentential configuration than the overt pronoun. We suggest that along with microstructure and the local coherence effects on referential devices, it is necessary to consider macrostructure and the effect of discourse segmenting on referential devices. Kokkuvõte. Helen Hint, Maria Reile, Elsi Kaiser: Kolmanda isiku eksplitsiitne pronoomen ja nullviitamine eesti keeles. Tähelepanekuid kahe katse tulemustest. Artiklis analüüsime eesti keele kolmanda isiku nullviitamise ja eksplitsiitse personaalpronoomeni ta vaheldumist ja referentsiaalseid omadusi. Viisime läbi kaks katset. Esimeses katses uurisime, kas valikut nullviitamise ja ta vahel mõjutab viiteahela struktuur ehk see, millised on olnud eelnevad samale referendile osutavad viitevahendid. Teises katses testisime, kas viitevahendi vastuvõetavuse hinnangut mõjutab lausete omavahelise ühendamise viis (kas kasutatakse kaht iseseisvat lauset või üht kahe rindliikmega lauset). Katsete tulemused näitavad, et viiteahela struktuur nullviitamise ja eksplitsiitse pronoomeni valikut üksinda ei mõjuta, vaid on seotud lausungite ühendamisega. Viimane on aga oluline tunnus eraldiseisvana: nullviitamine on tavalisem siis, kui kasutatakse üht rinnastusseoses olevate liikmetega lauset, ta esineb pigem siis, kui kaks (liht)lauset on omavahel punktiga eraldatud. Teisalt mõjutab lausete ühendamise viis eelkõige nullviitamist, samas kui ta kasutus ei näita selle tunnuse suhtes olulisi erinevusi. Siinne uurimus osutab selgelt, et viitevahendite kasutuses peegeldub diskursuse töötluse mitmetahulisus. Lisaks kohesioonisuhetele mõjutab viitevahendi valikut diskursuse üldisem ülesehitus. Seega on siinse uurimuse tulemused kooskõlas mitmefaktorilise ja vormispetsiifilise lähenemisega viitamisele.

What corpus data reveal about the Position of Antecedent Strategy: anaphora resolution in Spanish monolinguals and L1 English-L2 Spanish bilinguals.

This study investigates the acquisition of anaphora resolution (AR) in Spanish as a second language (L2). According to the Position of Antecedent Strategy (PAS), in native Spanish null pronominal subjects are biased toward subject antecedents, whereas overt pronominal subjects show a "flexible" bias (typically toward non-subject but also toward subject antecedents). The PAS has been extensively investigated in experimental studies, though little is known about real production. We show how naturalistic production (corpus methods) can uncover crucial factors in the PAS that have not been explored in the experimental literature. We analyzed written samples from the CEDEL2 corpus: L1 English-L2 Spanish adult late-bilingual learners (intermediate, lower-advanced and upper-advanced proficiency levels) and a control group of adult Spanish monolinguals (N = 75 texts). Anaphors were manually annotated via a fine-grained, linguistically-motivated tagset in UAM Corpus Tool. Against traditional assumptions, our results reveal that (i) the PAS is not a privileged mechanism for resolving anaphora; (ii) it is more complex than assumed (in terms of the division of labor of anaphoric forms, their antecedents and the syntactic configuration in which they appear); (iii) the much-debated "flexible" bias of overt pronouns is apparent since they are hardly produced and are replaced by repeated NPs, which show a clear non-subject antecedent bias; (iv) at the syntax-discourse interface, the PAS is constrained by information structure in more complex ways than assumed: null pronouns mark topic continuity, whereas overtly realized referential expressions (overt REs: overt pronouns and NPs) mark topic shift. Learners show more difficulties with topic continuity (where they redundantly use overt pronouns) than with topic shift (where they normally disambiguate by using overtly realized REs), thus being more redundant than ambiguous, in line with the Pragmatic Principles Violation Hypothesis (PPVH) (Lozano, 2016). We finally argue that the insights from corpora should be implemented into experiments. The triangulation of corpus and experimental methods in bilingualism ultimately provides a clearer understanding of the phenomenon under investigation.

Pseudorelatives, relatives, and L1 attrition: Resilience and vulnerability in parser biases

Aims: While research on syntactic L1 attrition has largely focused on interface phenomena (e.g., overt pronouns in null-subject languages), attrition has also been reported to affect syntactic parsing. This paper extends previous work by looking at the attrition of (pseudo)relative clause parser biases in L1-Italian L2-English speakers. This was done to investigate whether previous findings of attrition in the interpretation of ambiguous relative clauses can be accounted for by changes to the parsing of pseudorelatives. Method: To tap parser biases, we conducted a sentence interpretation task in Italian with ambiguous items. Within these items, pseudorelative availability was manipulated. Participants consisted of two groups of adult native Italian speakers: one living in Italy and one living in an English-speaking country. Data analysis: Responses from the sentence interpretation task were subjected to a mixed-effects logistic regression. Findings: Results indicated a global effect of attrition resulting in more low attachment interpretations. This did not interact with pseudorelative availability. Originality: We take this to be a novel contribution to the literature for two reasons. First, our results extend previous results from Spanish–English bilinguals to a new language pair. Second, we believe that this is the first study to investigate attrition of relative clause attachment biases in light of Grillo and Costa’s, Pseudorelative-First Hypothesis. Once this is taken into consideration, we argue that attrition of parser biases is not due to a loss of a global high attachment bias under pressure from the L2, but a strengthening of a low attachment bias already present in the L1. Implications: Results suggest that future work on attrition should look beyond conflicts in parser biases between a bilingual’s languages and raise the possibility that attrition affects attachment biases in other contexts.

Language-specific properties and overt pronoun interpretation:The case of L2 Japanese

Research on second language (L2) pronoun use in null-argument languages has traditionally focused on whether or not a speaker’s first language (L1) also allows null pronouns. However, recent studies have pointed out that it is equally important to consider the specific linguistic properties of overt pronouns in the L1 and L2, which may differ even across two null-argument languages. This study investigates the interpretation and processing of overt pronouns in Japanese by speakers whose L1 (English) and L2 (Japanese) differ not only in whether they allow null arguments, but also in the relative involvement of structural and pragmatic constraints on overt pronoun interpretation. This combination of languages is particularly interesting because English and Japanese overt third-person subject pronouns can be considered at extreme ends of a spectrum: in English they are largely structurally constrained and show a consistent preference for a local subject antecedent, while in Japanese they are loosely constrained by pragmatic factors and show no consistent interpretation preference. Both interpretation and eye-tracking data is recorded, with results suggesting that the unique nature of overt pronouns in Japanese, including their rarity in the input, leads to partial knowledge of them on the lexical level rather than implicating the larger syntactic system or syntax–pragmatics interface.

Disentangling Parsing and Grammar in Subject Pronouns Interpretation in Italian

In the present study, we investigate if and how null and overt subject pronouns interpretation preferences in Italian can be influenced by two factors: (i) the presence of c-commanding antecedents (Rizzi 2018) and (ii) the ‘impatient parser’ (Sorace and Filiaci 2006; Fedele and Kaiser 2014). To disentangle the effects of c-commanding antecedents and of the ‘impatient parser’, we compare experimental conditions differing for only one of the two factors. The comparison demonstrates that c-commanding antecedents influence the interpretation of null pronouns but not the interpretation of overt pronouns, while no effect of the impatient parser is found for either null or overt pronouns. In addition, we found that external referent interpretation preferences are modulated by Principle C effects for null and overt pronouns, albeit to different degrees. External referent choices also increase when an

Null/ overt subject pronoun expression in Tunisian Arabic

The present article examines the overall frequency of overt subject pronouns in cases where their use is nonobligatory in Tunisian Arabic, the factors that condition their usage in such contexts, implication for word order, and finally the effect of contact with French on subject pronoun expression. Using a corpus of 12 sociolinguistic interviews recorded by the author with speakers from the Greater Tunis area (approximately 28,000 words), the study concludes that of a total of 1653 tokens there are 248 cases where an overt subject pronoun was used in a context where it could have been null as well, representing 15% of the data. This amounts to a very high rate of use of null subject pronouns in Tunisian Arabic, reaching 85%. Similar to previous studies, coreferentiality plays a determining role: When the subject is the same, overt pronouns are used in 9.8% of the cases, but when the subject is switched, overt pronouns are used in 20.1% of the cases. This proves that Tunisian Arabic is primarily a pro-drop variety with coreferentiality playing the most important role in overt pronoun use. Results also show that with pronominal subjects, the SVO word order is the more common structure: overt pronouns occurred in preverbal position in 74.6% of the cases (185/248) and in postverbal position in 25.4% of the cases (63/248). Contact with French, on the other hand, proves not to be a relevant factor.

The Production of Subject Anaphoric Expressions in Italian and Mexican Spanish: A Forced-Choice Experimental Study.

We compare the production of anaphoric expressions in Spanish and Italian. In two sentence completion tasks, Spanish and Italian-speaking participants complete sentence fragments where we manipulate the location of the antecedents (in a main or subordinate clause), the gender of the antecedents (similar or different) and the referent of the anaphoric expression (subject or object antecedent). Our results show a weaker subject bias for null pronouns and a weaker object bias for overt pronouns in Spanish compared to Italian. In addition, a thetic interpretation of the initial (subordinate) clause decreases the accessibility of the subject antecedent, leading to an increased use of noun phrases when there is gender-similarity between antecedents. By including gender dissimilar antecedents, we further observe an increase in speakers' production of overt pronouns when reference to an object antecedent is expected.