Aurora Bel
Biographic Data
| ID | 1666240 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Aurora Bel |
| GIVEN NAMES | Aurora |
| FAMILY NAME | Bel |
| SIGNATURE | BEL A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Universitat Pompeu Fabra |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1954-8899 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 9 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Online pronoun resolution in children with developmental language disorder (DLD)
Children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) often experience difficulties with morphosyntax and discourse processing, which hinder their ability to establish referential coherence. While pronoun resolution has been extensively studied in typically developing (TD) children, little is known about how children with DLD process pronouns in real time, especially in Spanish—a language with rich morphology and flexible word order. This study inv…
Resolution of Null and Overt Pronouns in Catalan
This study investigates subject pronoun resolution in Catalan, a null-subject language, by examining linguistic and cognitive factors. We focus on gender, pronoun type (null and overt), and syntactic function (subject and object), as well as the order of mention (first and second) of antecedents. Using eye-tracking in the Visual World Paradigm (VWP), we analyze the interplay between these factors in both canonical (SVO) and non-canonical (OVS) se…
Profiling language dominance in bilinguals in Catalonia
Aims: This study evaluates the Bilingual Language Profile (BLP) in characterizing bilinguals in Catalonia, where Catalan and Spanish coexist across daily life, education, and other contexts. Methodology: A sample of 254 Catalan-Spanish bilinguals, predominantly university students, were categorized as Catalan-dominant, Spanish-dominant, or balanced bilinguals based on their BLP dominance scores. The four BLP modules—language history, use, profici…
Grammatical gender agreement in production
Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: The primary goal of this study was to investigate the knowledge of Russian gender in young heritage speakers through different agreement constructions. Design/methodology/approach: Participants were 30 Russian–Spanish–Catalan multilinguals from Spain aged 7–11 years, divided into two proficiency groups, and a baseline group of 24 age-matched Russian monolinguals residing in Russia. All participants …
Differential Object Marking in Structurally Complex Contexts in Spanish
This study examines whether Differential Object Marking (DOM) realization and word order in relative clauses (RCs) in Spanish affect processing and interpretation among monolinguals and highly proficient Catalan-Spanish bilinguals. RCs are parallel in Catalan and Spanish, but DOM is much more restricted in Catalan than in Spanish, and, interestingly, the distinction between subject and object RCs relies mainly on the presence/absence of DOM. To e…
On the impact of clause order on pronoun resolution
In research on intra-sentential pronominal anaphora resolution in null subject languages, it has been argued that null pronouns tend to be biased towards subject antecedents, whereas overt pronouns tend to prefer object antecedents, as predicted by Carminati’s ‘Position of the Antecedent Hypothesis’. However, these studies have mainly focused on only one of the two possible clause orders (main-subordinate or subordinate-main), which have not been…
How are signed languages learned as second languages
This review addresses the question: How are signed languages learned by adult hearing learners? While there has been much research on second language learners of spoken languages, there has been far less work in signed languages. Comparing sign and spoken second language acquisition allows us to investigate whether learning patterns are general (across the visual and oral modalities) or specific (in only one of the modalities), and hence furthers…
Factors Affecting Language Proficiency in Heritage Language
This study focuses on the issue of language proficiency attainment among young heritage speakers of Russian living in Spain and examines factors that have been claimed to promote heritage language proficiency, namely, age, gender, age of onset to L2, quantity of exposure and family language use. A group of 30 Russian-Spanish-Catalan trilingual children aged 7–11 participated in the study. In order to measure heritage language proficiency (L1 Russ…
Processing DOM in relative clauses
Early heritage bilinguals have been repeatedly found to differ from late bilinguals and from monolinguals (e.g., Montrul, 2008 , 2011 ). In the realm of Spanish Differential Object Marking (DOM), both early heritage bilinguals ( Montrul et al., 2015 ) and late bilinguals (e.g., Bowles & Montrul, 2008 ; Guijarro-Fuentes, 2012 ) exhibit difficulties. DOM in a complex structure such as relative clauses (RCs) provides an ideal setting to differentiat…
Does empirical data from bilingual and native Spanish corpora meet linguistic theory? The role of discourse context in variation of subject expression
The goal of this study is to shed light on how empirical data on the discourse constraints of null and overt third person subject pronouns in L1 and bilingual Spanish meet linguistic theory. A (semi)spontaneous production task was administered to 34 Moroccan Arabic (MA)/Spanish early sequential bilinguals and 30 L1 Spanish controls. All 3 rd person subject positions were coded: (1) morphosyntactic form (null pronoun vs. overt pronoun); (2) discou…
On the Acceptance of the Null That by Bilingual Catalan/Spanish L2 Learners of English
The research presented in this article aims at providing new data on L2 learner knowledge and recognition of the null that in complement clauses. The speech of English native speakers reveals a kind of variation which implies that where that may be present or absent in clauses selected by many common verbs such as say or think there is no preference for one of the two options. In this article, judgement data of bilingual Catalan/Spanish upper-int…
Transfer and proficiency effects in L2 processing of subject anaphora
Reference control in the narratives of adult sign language learners
Aims and Objectives: Learning to control reference in narratives is a major step in becoming a speaker of a second language, including a signed language. Previous research describes the pragmatic and cognitive mechanisms that are used for reference control and it is clear that differences are apparent between first and second language speakers. However, some debate exists about the reasons for second language learners’ tendency for over-redundanc…
Anaphoric devices in written and spoken narrative discourse
In this study, we focus on pronominal anaphora and we investigate the referential properties of null and overt subject pronouns in Catalan, in the semi-spontaneous production of narrative spoken and written texts by three groups of speakers/writers (9–10, 12–13, and 15–16 year olds). We aimed at determining (1) pronoun preferences for a specific type of antecedent; (2) their specialization in a certain discourse function; and (3) whether the patt…
Transfer and proficiency effects in L2 processing of subject anaphora
On the Acceptance of the Null That by Bilingual Catalan/Spanish L2 Learners of English
The research presented in this article aims at providing new data on L2 learner knowledge and recognition of the null that in complement clauses. The speech of English native speakers reveals a kind of variation which implies that where that may be present or absent in clauses selected by many common verbs such as say or think there is no preference for one of the two options. In this article, judgement data of bilingual Catalan/Spanish upper-int…
Factors Affecting Language Proficiency in Heritage Language
This study focuses on the issue of language proficiency attainment among young heritage speakers of Russian living in Spain and examines factors that have been claimed to promote heritage language proficiency, namely, age, gender, age of onset to L2, quantity of exposure and family language use. A group of 30 Russian-Spanish-Catalan trilingual children aged 7–11 participated in the study. In order to measure heritage language proficiency (L1 Russ…
Anaphoric devices in written and spoken narrative discourse
In this study, we focus on pronominal anaphora and we investigate the referential properties of null and overt subject pronouns in Catalan, in the semi-spontaneous production of narrative spoken and written texts by three groups of speakers/writers (9–10, 12–13, and 15–16 year olds). We aimed at determining (1) pronoun preferences for a specific type of antecedent; (2) their specialization in a certain discourse function; and (3) whether the patt…
Reference control in the narratives of adult sign language learners
Aims and Objectives: Learning to control reference in narratives is a major step in becoming a speaker of a second language, including a signed language. Previous research describes the pragmatic and cognitive mechanisms that are used for reference control and it is clear that differences are apparent between first and second language speakers. However, some debate exists about the reasons for second language learners’ tendency for over-redundanc…
Transfer and proficiency effects in L2 processing of subject anaphora
Processing DOM in relative clauses
Early heritage bilinguals have been repeatedly found to differ from late bilinguals and from monolinguals (e.g., Montrul, 2008 , 2011 ). In the realm of Spanish Differential Object Marking (DOM), both early heritage bilinguals ( Montrul et al., 2015 ) and late bilinguals (e.g., Bowles & Montrul, 2008 ; Guijarro-Fuentes, 2012 ) exhibit difficulties. DOM in a complex structure such as relative clauses (RCs) provides an ideal setting to differentiat…
Does empirical data from bilingual and native Spanish corpora meet linguistic theory? The role of discourse context in variation of subject expression
The goal of this study is to shed light on how empirical data on the discourse constraints of null and overt third person subject pronouns in L1 and bilingual Spanish meet linguistic theory. A (semi)spontaneous production task was administered to 34 Moroccan Arabic (MA)/Spanish early sequential bilinguals and 30 L1 Spanish controls. All 3 rd person subject positions were coded: (1) morphosyntactic form (null pronoun vs. overt pronoun); (2) discou…
On the Acceptance of the Null That by Bilingual Catalan/Spanish L2 Learners of English
The research presented in this article aims at providing new data on L2 learner knowledge and recognition of the null that in complement clauses. The speech of English native speakers reveals a kind of variation which implies that where that may be present or absent in clauses selected by many common verbs such as say or think there is no preference for one of the two options. In this article, judgement data of bilingual Catalan/Spanish upper-int…
How are signed languages learned as second languages
This review addresses the question: How are signed languages learned by adult hearing learners? While there has been much research on second language learners of spoken languages, there has been far less work in signed languages. Comparing sign and spoken second language acquisition allows us to investigate whether learning patterns are general (across the visual and oral modalities) or specific (in only one of the modalities), and hence furthers…
Factors Affecting Language Proficiency in Heritage Language
This study focuses on the issue of language proficiency attainment among young heritage speakers of Russian living in Spain and examines factors that have been claimed to promote heritage language proficiency, namely, age, gender, age of onset to L2, quantity of exposure and family language use. A group of 30 Russian-Spanish-Catalan trilingual children aged 7–11 participated in the study. In order to measure heritage language proficiency (L1 Russ…
On the impact of clause order on pronoun resolution
In research on intra-sentential pronominal anaphora resolution in null subject languages, it has been argued that null pronouns tend to be biased towards subject antecedents, whereas overt pronouns tend to prefer object antecedents, as predicted by Carminati’s ‘Position of the Antecedent Hypothesis’. However, these studies have mainly focused on only one of the two possible clause orders (main-subordinate or subordinate-main), which have not been…
Grammatical gender agreement in production
Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: The primary goal of this study was to investigate the knowledge of Russian gender in young heritage speakers through different agreement constructions. Design/methodology/approach: Participants were 30 Russian–Spanish–Catalan multilinguals from Spain aged 7–11 years, divided into two proficiency groups, and a baseline group of 24 age-matched Russian monolinguals residing in Russia. All participants …
Differential Object Marking in Structurally Complex Contexts in Spanish
This study examines whether Differential Object Marking (DOM) realization and word order in relative clauses (RCs) in Spanish affect processing and interpretation among monolinguals and highly proficient Catalan-Spanish bilinguals. RCs are parallel in Catalan and Spanish, but DOM is much more restricted in Catalan than in Spanish, and, interestingly, the distinction between subject and object RCs relies mainly on the presence/absence of DOM. To e…
Profiling language dominance in bilinguals in Catalonia
Aims: This study evaluates the Bilingual Language Profile (BLP) in characterizing bilinguals in Catalonia, where Catalan and Spanish coexist across daily life, education, and other contexts. Methodology: A sample of 254 Catalan-Spanish bilinguals, predominantly university students, were categorized as Catalan-dominant, Spanish-dominant, or balanced bilinguals based on their BLP dominance scores. The four BLP modules—language history, use, profici…
Online pronoun resolution in children with developmental language disorder (DLD)
Children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) often experience difficulties with morphosyntax and discourse processing, which hinder their ability to establish referential coherence. While pronoun resolution has been extensively studied in typically developing (TD) children, little is known about how children with DLD process pronouns in real time, especially in Spanish—a language with rich morphology and flexible word order. This study inv…
Resolution of Null and Overt Pronouns in Catalan
This study investigates subject pronoun resolution in Catalan, a null-subject language, by examining linguistic and cognitive factors. We focus on gender, pronoun type (null and overt), and syntactic function (subject and object), as well as the order of mention (first and second) of antecedents. Using eye-tracking in the Visual World Paradigm (VWP), we analyze the interplay between these factors in both canonical (SVO) and non-canonical (OVS) se…
Linguistics (12 works) · Computer Science (11 works) · Psychology (11 works) · Artificial Intelligence (7 works) · Language Development and Disorders (7 works) · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism (7 works) · Pronoun (6 works) · Subject pronoun (6 works) · Sentence (5 works) · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning (4 works)