Syntax-discourse Interface Research Articles

Constructions in Minimalism: A Functional Perspective on Cyclicity.

This article presents a perspective on syntactic cyclicity in minimalism that is compatible with fundamental ideas in construction–grammar approaches. In particular, I outline the minimalist approach to syntactic structure building and highlight that units of potentially any phrasal size can be atomic items in the syntactic derivation, showing that the opposition between simplex linguistic items (“words”) and more complex ones (“phrases”) in minimalism is in principle as artificial as in many construction–grammar approaches. Based on this perspective on structure building, I focus on the empirical domain of subextraction patterns out of complex subjects, adjuncts, and complements, and I demonstrate that the acceptability patterns in this domain can be explained by a functional approach to syntactic cyclicity: Unacceptable patterns are ruled out not for configurational (and hence syntactic) reasons, but rather they systematically follow from infelicitous interpretations at the syntax–discourse interface. This raises the question of whether syntactic cyclicity is (at least in part) motivated by performance (read: “language-in-use”) constraints, which I consider another area for fruitful interaction between construction–grammar and usage-based accounts on the one hand and minimalism on the other hand.

D-linked and non-d-linkedwh-questions in L2 French and L3 English

AbstractThis study considers L2 French and L3 English ultimate attainment among L1 Moroccan Arabic adult learners. It contrasts the acquisition of two types ofwh-questions: discourse-linked and non-discourse-linked questions in root and embedded forms. The results of two acceptability judgment tasks indicate that the advanced learners in L2 French and L3 English are nativelike on d-linkedwh-questions but less accurate on non-discourse-linked interrogatives. They successfully unlearn resumption as an L1 strategy to form discourse-linked questions. Therefore, contra the prediction of the Interface Hypothesis, discourse-linking is acquirable though it is a property of the syntax-discourse interface. It does not pose more learning difficulty than quantification (formalwh-feature) of narrow syntax. The study indicates that embedding and thereby the processing cognitive load are the deterministic variables, not the language domain of constructions.

Foreword

In these strange days of a limited physical and social contact due to the worldwide pandemic we are especially grateful for the existence of the parallel virtual world, which goes beyond human shortcomings. Our work continued without any obstructions and we are pleased to announce the summer ALA issue of the year 2020. In it we offer six research articles that extend over a broad linguistic area and include languages of the far East Asia, namely Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese.
 The issue opens with the WU Jiayi’s article “Contextual Conditions and Constraints in Chinese Dangling Topics: Syntax-Discourse Interface Analysis”, in which the author revisits dangling topics in Mandarin Chinese from the semantic and syntactic view, and evolves their findings to the hypothesis concerning language typology.
 The second article on Chinese is Tina ČOK’s “Lexical Aspect Classification for Unrelated Languages: A Case Study on Slovenian and Chinese Lexical Aspect”, in which the author analyzes Chinese and Slovenian verb aspect to show that deeper cognitive differences effect our perception of reality, and upon her findings proposes an upgraded general classification of verb types.
 The following article entitled “The New Chinese Corpus of Literary Texts Litchi” by Mateja PETROVČIČ, Radovan GARABÍK, and Ľuboš GAJDOŠ presents a newly launched corpus of Chinese literary texts Litchi, and exemplifies the variety of its benefits.
 Furthermore, Petra JAKLIN “The Many Meanings of the Japanese Causative:Widening the Pragmatic Take on the -(sa)seru Causative Sentence” is an article in which the author revisits the range of possible interpretations and meanings carried by Japanese causative sentences, and supports her conclusions with comparisons to English and Croatian structures.
 HWANG Yoong Hee’s article “Normative Forms and Synthetic Structure of Japanese in the Incubation Period of L2: Subject to Sentence-final Forms in Longitudinal Discourse Data of Korean Returnee Sisters’ Japanese” focuses on L2 Japanese sentence-final forms and their change mechanism in case of Korean returnees.
 Last but not least, “Examining the Part-of-speech Features in Assessing the Readability of Vietnamese Texts” is an article by An-Vinh LUONG, Diep NGUYEN, and Dien DINH that discusses the present state of research on text readability in Vietnamese and proposes an improved model on estimating readability of texts and consequently their classification.
 
 Editors and Editorial board wish the regular and new readers of the ALA journal a pleasant read full of inspiration.
 
 Editors

WHICH FACTORS DETERMINE THE CHOICE OF REFERENTIAL EXPRESSIONS IN L2 ENGLISH DISCOURSE?

ABSTRACTReferential expressions (REs) have been investigated in L2 English but to date there is no single study that systematically and simultaneously analyzes the development and acquisition of the multiple factors that constrain the choice of REs in natural discourse production. We investigate L1 Spanish–L2 English learners across three proficiency levels versus an English control group from the COREFL corpus. An analysis of both the RE and its antecedent(s) reveals that different intra- and extralinguistic factors constrain the choice of REs (information status, activated antecedents, syntactic configurations, characterhood, within-task effect, and proficiency level). L2 learners (L2ers) are sensitive to some factors but are unable to fully attain native-like levels even at advanced stages. They do not transfer null subjects from their L1 contrary to previous L2 research, and do not find all contexts at the syntax-discourse interface equally problematic, thus confirming previous theoretical proposals and empirical findings.

The acquisition of discourse-pragmatic rules for null and overt first-person subjects by Greek learners of Turkish

In Turkish, null and overt arguments do not show the same distributional properties at discourse level. There are discourse-pragmatic factors affecting this distribution (Kerslake, 1987; Ruhi, 1996; Turan, 1995; Çeltek & Oktar, 2014; Çeltek Kaili, 2017). Previous studies suggest that the acquisition of argument realization system in second language (L2) poses a major acquisition problem for adult L2 learners, especially the properties that constrain the native use of null and overt subjects at the syntax-discourse interface are reported to cause persistent difficulty. Based on this assumption, this study investigates this problematic area in L2 acquisition from a discourse-pragmatic view. More specifically, the purpose of the present study is to inspect the acquisition of the following discourse-pragmatic rules governing the use of null and overt first-person subjects in L2 Turkish oral narratives produced by first language Greek speakers: a) salient referent, b) switch focus, c) contrastive focus, d) pragmatic weight, e) epistemic parenthetical. The data were collected via three oral narrative tasks. The participants were 10 advanced L2 Turkish learners and 10 native Turkish speakers. Results obtained from the three oral narrative tasks demonstrate that advanced L2 learners of Turkish present practically no deficiency on the use of discourse-pragmatic rules that govern the use of null and overt first-person subjects.

Second Language Acquisition at Interfaces: A Study of the Word Order Variation in the Chinese Nominal Domain.

This study is aimed to re-examine the Interface Hypothesis via investigating the adult L2 acquisition of the word order variation of numeral classifier indefinites at the syntax-semantics and syntax-discourse interfaces in L2 Chinese. A computerized acceptability judgment task was administered to 41 advanced and intermediate adult Korean learners of Chinese to collect data in accuracy and reaction times. For accuracy, it was found that the advanced L2 learners have not acquired the target phenomenon to a native-like level and did not score significantly higher than the intermediate L2 learners at both the syntax-semantics and syntax-discourse interfaces. For reaction times, while no significant differences were reported between the syntax-semantics and syntax-discourse interface items for the advanced L2 learners, developmental progress was observed on the syntax-semantics but not the syntax-discourse interface phenomenon. The findings suggest that the internal versus external interface dichotomy should not suffice to account for the acquisition difficulty and processing costs of different linguistic properties in L2 acquisition.

Clitic-doubled left dislocation in L2 Spanish: The effect of processing load at the syntax-discourse interface

ABSTRACT This project examines whether second-language (L2) learners can converge on a native-like pattern at the interface between syntax and discourse under low and high processing pressure, using Spanish clitic-doubled left dislocation (CLLD) as a test case. The original version of the Interface Hypothesis (IH) predicts that L2 competence on syntax-discourse interface structures may diverge from that of L1 speakers , yet there is experimental evidence of native-like offline judgments of clitic-doubling and its correlation to relevant discourse contexts in L2 Spanish. However, the most updated version of the IH argues that problems at the syntax-discourse interface are not due to divergent competence but rather to L2 processing limitations. To isolate the potential source of divergence, in the present study L2 Spanish learners completed an Acceptability Judgment Task (low processing pressure) and a Speeded Production Task (high processing pressure). Group results show convergence on the native-like pattern on the Acceptability Judgment Task and divergence on the Speeded Production Task. The first finding suggests that L2 learners have linguistic knowledge of discourse-related clitic-doubling, challenging the original version of the IH. The second finding suggests that the processing pressure induced by time constraints and production is correlated with L2 divergence, as predicted by the new version of the IH. We conclude by considering whether this divergence is most appropriately attributed to processing at the interfaces or could alternatively be explained as a result of real-time production specifically.

A revisit to the [Num-Cl-Modifier-de-N]/ [Modifier-de-Num-Cl‑N] variation in Mandarin Chinese

Abstract This paper investigates the licensing condition of the [Num(eral)-Cl(assifier)-Mod(ifier)-de-N(oun)] / [Mod-de-Num-Cl‑N] variation in Mandarin Chinese. It is observed that this variation represents a complex interface phenomenon in the nominal domain, which is subject to the semantic condition concerning the i(ndividual)-level/​s(tage)-level nature of the modifier contained on the one hand, and the discourse-related condition concerning contrastive topic (ct) on the other. Based on this, at the syntax-semantics interface level, this paper proposes a division of the syntactic domain of adnominal modification to account for the discrepancy between i‑level and s‑level modifiers in terms of their capability in forming [Mod-de-Num-Cl‑N] in the neutral context. In the meanwhile, at the syntax-discourse interface level, in light of the interface-induced analysis pursued by Neeleman & Van de Koot (2008) and Horvath (2010), it is claimed that the word order of [Mod-de-Num-Cl‑N] could be adopted as a linguistic device to encode ct within the nominal domain in Mandarin Chinese, in which case the ordering of [Mod-de-Num-Cl‑N] is licensed for the purpose of establishing a transparent mapping between syntactic configuration and information structure.

Towards a model of the syntax–discourse interface: a syntactic analysis ofplease

This article examines the syntax and semantics ofplease. Using a mainstream generative syntactic framework, I propose that syntactically integratedpleaseis a discourse marker that marks the clause in which it occurs as a request.Pleasemay appear clause-initially or clause-medially as determined by a number of factors, including clause type, modality, negation and the application of ellipsis. There is also a homophonous markerpleasethat occurs in clause-final position; clause-finalpleasedoes not mark requestsper sebut ‘bonds’ a speaker and addressee, reinforcing their relationship as requester and requestee. This analysis ofpleaseprovides support for syntactic approaches to speech act structure, particularly the claim that illocutionary force is part of narrow syntax rather than a solely pragmatic phenomenon. The article provides support for pursuing a model of the syntax–discourse interface in which interactions between discourse markers and clause-internal functional elements, such as mood and modality, form the interface between syntax and discourse.

Divergência seletiva no estádio final de aquisição de L2: Dados sobre a construção com there em inglês

This study investigates the acquisition of there-constructions (with verbs other than be) in L2 English by native speakers of European Portuguese (EP) and French. Its main purpose is to test two opposing hypotheses on the end-state of L2 acquisition at the interfaces: the Interface Hypothesis (IH) and the L1+input Hypothesis (LIH). The former proposes that internal interfaces are, generally, unproblematic at the end-state of L2 acquisition, whereas external interfaces, like the syntax-discourse interface, are areas of permanent optionality due to processing inefficiencies associated with bilingualism. The latter, in contrast, advocates that structures at external interfaces generate problems at a near-native level iff their properties are different in the L1 and the L2 and they are infrequent in the input. By administering 2 untimed drag and drop tasks, 3 speeded acceptability judgement tasks and 1 syntactic priming task to a total of 80 participants, we tested the types of overt expletives, the types of intransitive verbs and the types of discourse contexts compatible with thereconstructions in advanced and near-native English. The results confirm the IH, but suggest that the LIH is not completely wrong.

The development of adverbial clause functions in Hebrew narrative and expository writing across adolescence

Abstract Interclausal subordination, serving various functions in written discourse, has been studied mostly from a quantitative perspective in later language development. The current study applied a discourse-functional approach to a quantitative and qualitative examination of subordinate Adverbial Clauses (ACs) in Hebrew writing development. Analysis targeted narrative and expository texts, written by Hebrew speaker-writers in grades 4, 7, 11, and university students. Adverbial clauses were counted, and classified according to function. In narratives, they delineated either plotline events, surrounding descriptions, or subjective interpretations. Expository ACs served to enlarge on the current argument, anchor new arguments in previous discourse, or move on, initiating a new topic. Narrative ACs had similar prevalence across development, but shifted functionally, favoring interpretive roles in older writers. Expository ACs retained their enlarging-on and anchoring functions, while decreasing in quantity, parallel to an increase in alternative, clause-internal devices. The study underscores the usefulness of a functionally-oriented perspective in revealing developmental changes in the syntax-discourse interface.

The impact of explicit instruction on different types of linguistic properties

Abstract Over the past decades, L2 research has shown that properties involving the syntax-discourse interface are typically more complex to acquire than strictly syntactic properties. To determine whether the complexity of the target property moderates the effectiveness of explicit instruction, this study investigates the impact of explicit instruction on the development of a syntactic property (the ungrammaticality of free inversion) and a syntax-discourse property (the unacceptability of locative inversion with informationally heavy verbs) in L1 European Portuguese-L2 English (B2 and C1 levels), using a pre-test/post-test design. Results reveal that instruction only produced lasting effects when it targeted syntax and learners were at the C1 level. These results indicate that syntax may be more permeable to instructional effects than the syntax-discourse interface and that the effectiveness of explicit instruction depends on learners’ stage of L2 development.

Effects of the interface categories on the acquisition patterns of English reflexives among learners of English as a foreign language

Objectives: Binding properties are difficult for learners to fully acquire. This study explored English-as-a-foreign-language learners’ acquisition patterns of the three binding properties of English reflexives and the effectiveness of the Interface Hypothesis. Methodology: One hundred and twenty-two native speakers of Chinese, a language with different binding properties, participated in the study; they were categorized into low, intermediate and advanced groups according to an English proficiency test. They were read 32 stories of 2 to 5 sentences each and were required to provide a comment sentence instantiating the three binding properties; i.e. c-command, subject orientation and locality. Data and analysis: A mixed repeated measures ANOVA was conducted with group and individual results of the experimental task to ascertain whether there were significant differences across different binding properties and among the three proficiency groups. Findings: Results from a truth-value judgment task indicate that the within-groups difficulty order of the three distinct binding properties is that: (a) for the low-proficiency group, c-command was easier than locality and orientation; and (b) for the intermediate-proficiency and the high-proficiency groups, c-command was easier than locality which, in turn, was easier than orientation. Among the three proficiency-groups, four acquisition patterns were found, which standard Binding Theory and its extensions cannot adequately explain. Originality: This is the first study to provide a variable-dependent account. It is argued that success or failure in establishing interface relations in second language grammars is likely to depend on a number of variables, including the involvement of the syntax–lexicon interface, syntax–semantics interface and syntax–discourse interface. Implications: The research suggests that the acquisition of English reflexives is variable-dependent, but not domain-wide. Specifically, the relationship between the binder and anaphoric expression can be established between the anaphors and some of their potential antecedents in second language English grammars, but not others, lending support to the Interface Hypothesis.

Türkçeyi göçmenlik ortamında yetişkinken öğrenen anadili İtalyanca olanların artgönderim yorumu

The research carried out in the recent years
 indicates that the structures at the syntax-discourse interface fall in a
 vulnerable domain for bilinguals (Sorace, 2011 for review). It has been
 proposed that cross-linguistic interference occurs when syntactic features of
 the two languages partially overlap (Müller & Hulk 2001 among others) due
 to the rise of optionality. Subsequent studies (e.g., Sorace & Serratrice,
 2009; Serratrice et al., 2012) found a cross-linguistic interference in
 bilinguals speaking two typologically similar languages. Recently, Sorace
 (2016) has proposed that interference may be due to the cognitive load of processing
 two languages. The present study analyzes the data collected by employing an Acceptability Judgment Test on the
 interpretation of backward anaphora in complex sentences by twelve native
 Italian speakers, who had learned Turkish as adults in immigration setting,
 with twelve matched Italian monolinguals as a control group. It is assumed that
 Italian and Turkish do not differ with respect to the antecedent biases of null
 and overt subject pronouns in the contexts under investigation. The focus of this
 study is on the acceptability of an overt/null subject in intrasentential
 anaphora with three conditions: general sentences, quantifier sentences, and
 subjunctive sentences. Our results show that bilingual speakers reject,
 significantly more, the null subject in an embedded subjunctive sentence as
 referring to the subject in the matrix sentence than the monolinguals. These
 data seem to contradict previous studies (Sorace & Filiaci 2006), wherein
 it was found that monolinguals and bilinguals differ in the interpretation of
 an overt pronoun. A discussion on why a null pronoun is vulnerable in
 Italian-Turkish bilinguals is needed. Though this study reinvigorates the
 hypothesis that the structures at a syntax-discourse interface are vulnerable
 and that bilingual processing cost may contribute to cross-linguistic
 interference.

Multilingual Competence Influences Answering Strategies in Italian-German Speakers.

The present study aims at analyzing the role of nativeness, the amount of input in L1 acquisition and the multilingual competence in the performance of Italian–German bilingual speakers. We compare novel data from the performance of adult L2 learners (L1: Italian; late L2: German) and that of heritage speakers (heritage language: Italian; majority language: German) to previous data from monolingual speakers of Italian. The comparison deals with the produced word order at the syntax-discourse interface in sentences containing New Information Subjects in answers to questions that prompt the identification of the clausal subject. Overall, adult L2 speakers and heritage speakers perform alike but crucially differently from Italian monolinguals. These data reveal that multilingual proficiency determines an increased variety in the adopted answering strategies; in particular, the German-like strategy is active in Italian. Nativeness alone is thus no guarantee for a homogeneous performance across groups, nor do we find similar patterns of performance in speakers who grew up as monolinguals. Data also show heritage speakers’ sensitivity to verb classes, with answering strategies varying in accordance with the verb argument structure. Participants’ productions reveal an interesting relation in sentences with transitive verbs between subject position (pre-/postverbal) and object form (lexical DP/clitic pronoun).

Divergência seletiva no estádio final de aquisição de L2: Dados sobre a construção com there em inglês

This study investigates the acquisition of there-constructions (with verbs other than be) in L2 English by native speakers of European Portuguese (EP) and French. Its main purpose is to test two opposing hypotheses on the end-state of L2 acquisition at the interfaces: the Interface Hypothesis (IH) and the L1+input Hypothesis (LIH). The former proposes that internal interfaces are, generally, unproblematic at the end-state of L2 acquisition, whereas external interfaces, like the syntax-discourse interface, are areas of permanent optionality due to processing inefficiencies associated with bilingualism. The latter, in contrast, advocates that structures at external interfaces generate problems at a near-native level iff their properties are different in the L1 and the L2 and they are infrequent in the input. By administering 2 untimed drag and drop tasks, 3 speeded acceptability judgement tasks and 1 syntactic priming task to a total of 80 participants, we tested the types of overt expletives, the types of intransitive verbs and the types of discourse contexts compatible with thereconstructions in advanced and near-native English. The results confirm the IH, but suggest that the LIH is not completely wrong.

Frequency at the syntax–discourse interface: A bidirectional study on fronting options in L1/L2 German and L1/L2 English

The present study investigates whether second language (L2) speakers are sensitive to the information-structural constraints and frequency distributions at the syntax–discourse interface in the L2. L1-German–L2-English and L1-English–L2-German speakers completed a speeded naturalness judgment task. For sentences presented in broad or narrow-focus contexts, they judged the naturalness of fronted locative (LP) and temporal (TP) adverbial phrases and fronted objects in both English and German. English and German differ in the frequency with which they employ these constructions. With high-frequency fronted-LP and TP sentences, both the L2 English and L2 German speakers exhibited equivalent judgments as their L1 counterparts, in spite of differences in the perceived naturalness and relative frequency of these constructions in English vs. German. Like L1 speakers, L2 English and L2 German speakers also judged the less-frequent fronted objects as more natural in narrow-focus than broad-focus contexts, showing successful acquisition at the syntax–discourse interface. However, they judged fronted object sentences as more natural overall than their respective L1 counterparts in both English and German. Together, these findings suggest that convergence at the L2 syntax–discourse interface is possible per se, but that lower construction frequency in the input entails persistent overgeneralization of non-canonical options in the L2.

The acquisition of object movement in Dutch: L1 transfer and near-native grammars at the syntax–discourse interface

This article investigates near-native grammars at the syntax–discourse interface by examining the second language (L2) acquisition of two different domains of object movement in Dutch, which exhibit syntax–discourse or syntax–semantics level properties. English and German near-native speakers of Dutch, where German but not English allows the same mapping strategies as Dutch in the phenomena under investigation, are tested on two felicity judgment tasks and a truth value judgment task. The results from the English participants show sensitivity to discourse information on the acceptability of non-canonical word orders, but only when the relevant discourse cues are sufficiently salient in the input. The acquisition of semantic effects on object movement was native-like for a large subset of the participants. The German group performed on target in all experiments. The results are partially in line with previous studies reporting L2 convergence at the syntax–discourse interface, but suggest that input effects should also be taken into account. Furthermore, the differences between the first language (L1) English and the L1 German group suggests that non-target performance at the syntax–discourse interface is not caused by general bilingual difficulties in integrating discourse information into syntax. The article elaborates on factors that contribute to (in)complete acquisition at the syntax–discourse interface.

The acquisition of Focus in L2 Spanish

This paper examines the strategies used by speakers of Spanish as a second language (L2) for marking Information Focus, a phenomenon found at the syntax–discourse interface. Sorace and colleagues have proposed the Interface Hypothesis, according to which the syntax–discourse interface poses unique challenges for bilinguals (Sorace, 2011). With respect to Spanish, there exists a gap between the theoretical and empirical literatures on Focus realization; the former suggests that Focus must appear in sentence-final position, yet recent experimental work challenges this claim, showing that Focus commonly remains in situ. Using a speeded production task, we compared the response patterns of L2 Spanish speakers to that of natives in order to bring additional evidence to bear on the debate. Results revealed an asymmetry: L2 learners converged with native speakers on Subject Focus but not on Object Focus, where proficiency mediated overall divergences, indicating a change toward more nativelike Focus-marking strategies over time. We discuss our findings in light of the Interface Hypothesis and existing theories of Focus marking in Spanish.

Discourse-linking in advanced L3 English: Testing the Interface Hypothesis

This study tests the Interface Hypothesis in the field of L3 acquisition. The learners are L1 Arabic–L2 French adults at the intermediate and advanced levels in L3 English. A forced multiple-choice written task tests non-d-linked and d-linked wh-questions, representing narrow syntax and the syntax–discourse interface. The intermediate learners of L3 English used the two constructions interchangeably regardless of the context. Comparatively, the advanced L3 learners diverge from the English native speakers on the syntactic construction but converge with them on its interface variant. They show sensitivity to the discourse-appropriateness distinction between d-linked and non-d-linked questions, contra the predictions of the Interface Hypothesis. We maintain that external interface properties such as d-linking are not necessarily destined for permanent representational deficit in the L3.