Dependency resolutions of null and overt subjects in English speakers’ L2 Chinese

Evidence for the cue-based model

Bibliographic Data

ID11655637
AuthorsLilong Xu (0000-0002-9937-4293, Shanghai Jiao Tong University), Boping Yuan (0000-0002-2920-079X, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China; University of Cambridge, UK, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume40
Issue2
Pages301-325
Publication date2022-11-26
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSecond language Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0267-6583 • E-ISSN: 1477-0326
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/02676583221135189
OpenAlexW4310295768
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited37

This study investigates whether there are different first-language–second-language (L1–L2) dependency resolutions by focusing on less-studied crosslinguistic variances in L2 acquisition of Chinese, a null-subject language, by speakers of English, a non-null-subject language. The overt subject pronoun of a Chinese main clause has free orientation and its antecedent can be the subject or object of the preceding causal subordinate clause, depending on pragmatic biases. The null subject of a Chinese main clause, however, is subject-oriented, and this subject orientation is not affected by any pragmatic bias. English does not allow null subjects and, like Chinese, overt subject pronouns in English have free orientation. An acceptability judgement task and an interpretation task were adopted, and the results suggest that only the free orientation of overt subjects, but not the subject orientation of null subjects, is acquirable for English-speaking learners; they are found to be influenced by the pragmatic bias. This provides evidence for the cue-based model (Cunnings, 2017), which states that L1–L2 differences in dependency resolution can be explained in terms of L1–L2 differences in susceptibility to interference and L2ers’ over-reliance on discourse-based/pragmatic cues. It is also observed that in L1 Chinese, competition between the target antecedent and distractors occurs during the reading of the sentence, while in L2 Chinese, this occurs after the reading of the sentence. These findings add to our growing understanding of different mechanisms in L1 vs. L2 dependency resolutions

Antecedent (behavioral psychology · Cognitive psychology · Linguistics · Pronoun · Sentence · Subject (documents · Subject pronoun · Computer Science · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism · Phonetics and Phonology Research · Psychology · Social Psychology

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