A rare structure at the syntax-discourse interface: heritage and Spanish-dominant native speakers weigh in

Leal, T., Rothman, J. and Slabakova, R. (2014) A rare structure at the syntax-discourse interface: heritage and Spanish-dominant native speakers weigh in. Language Acquisition, 21 (4). pp. 411-429. ISSN 1048-9223 doi: 10.1080/10489223.2014.892946

Abstract/Summary

The present study examines knowledge of the discourse-appropriateness of Clitic Right Dislocation (CLRD) in a population of Heritage (HS) and Spanish-dominant Native Speakers in order to test the predictions of the Interface Hypothesis (IH; Sorace 2011). The IH predicts that speakers in language contact situations will experience difficulties with integrating information involving the interface of syntax and discourse modules. CLRD relates a dislocated constituent to a discourse antecedent, requiring integration of syntax and pragmatics. Results from an acceptability judgment task did not support the predictions of the IH. No statistical differences between the HSs’ performance and that of L1-dominant native speakers were evidenced when participants were presented with an offline task. Thus, our study did not find any evidence of “incomplete acquisition” (Montrul 2008) as it pertains to this specific linguistic structure.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/43604
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Interdisciplinary Research Centres (IDRCs) > Centre for Literacy and Multilingualism (CeLM) Interdisciplinary Research Centres (IDRCs) > Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and Neurodynamics (CINN) Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Department of Clinical Language Sciences Interdisciplinary Research Centres (IDRCs) > Centre for Cognition Research (CCR)
Publisher	Taylor & Francis
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