Development of Null and Overt Subject Pronouns in Multilingual Speakers

Introduction

• Presenter: Tihana Kraš
• Topic: Development of null and overt subject pronouns in multilingual speakers

Null-Subject Languages

• Examples: Italian, Spanish, Croatian, Polish, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic
• Characteristics:
  • Can omit or express subject pronouns in the pre-verbal position of finite clauses
  • Omitted: Null-subject pronouns
  • Expressed: Overt-subject pronouns
• Italian Example:
  • "Emma ha imparato a nuotare..."
    • "È felice" (Null pronoun)
    • "Lei è felice" (Overt pronoun)

Non-Null-Subject Languages

• Examples: English, French, German
• Characteristics:
  • Subject pronouns must always be expressed (overt subject pronouns only)

Functions in Discourse

• Antecedent: The noun or noun phrase a pronoun refers to
• Agreement: Pronouns agree in person, number, and gender with their antecedents
• Topical vs. Non-Topical Antecedents:
  • Null pronouns: Refer to topical antecedents (focus of attention)
  • Overt pronouns: Refer to non-topical antecedents
• Italian Example:
  • "Emma ha imparato a nuotare..."
    • "È felice" (Emma is happy)
    • "Lei è felice" (Someone else is happy)

Contexts within a Sentence

• Hypothesis: Null pronouns tend to refer to antecedents in the subject position (prototypical topics), while overt pronouns tend to refer to antecedents in non-subject positions
• Empirical Studies: Confirm the hypothesis for Italian and Croatian
  • Italian Example:
    • "Marina ha salutato Nina mentre correva" (Marina was running)
    • "Marina ha salutato Nina mentre lei correva" (Nina was running)
  • Croatian Example:
    • "Marina je pozdravila Ninu dok je trčala" (Marina was running)
    • "Marina je pozdravila Ninu dok je ona trčala" (Nina was running)

Acquisition in Multilingual Speakers

• Two Components:
  1. Learning the presence/absence of null subject pronouns
  2. Acquiring distribution rules for null and overt subject pronouns
• Difficulties:
  • First component: Relatively unproblematic
  • Second component: Sometimes problematic

Studies on Italian Bilinguals

• Bilinguals: English-Italian, Spanish-Italian
• Findings:
  • Produce and accept overt subject pronouns inappropriately more often than monolinguals, but use null pronouns correctly
• Testing Method:
  • Picture Selection Task (Tsimpli et al., 2004): Participants select pictures matching a sentence with null/overt pronouns
  • Sorace and Filiaci (2006): Near-native speakers of Italian with English as L1 had difficulties with overt pronouns

Crosslinguistic Influence

• Comparing Languages:
  • Italian and Croatian: Use null and overt pronouns similarly
  • Spanish: Uses both null and overt pronouns for topical antecedents
  • English: Uses only overt pronouns for both topical and non-topical antecedents
• Influence Hypothesis: L1 influences overt pronoun use in L2
  • English-Italian and Spanish-Italian bilinguals: Overuse overt pronouns in Italian
  • Croatian-Italian bilinguals: Use without difficulties

Summary

• Key Points:
  • Null subject pronouns: Refer to topical antecedents
  • Overt subject pronouns: Refer to non-topical antecedents
  • Bilinguals: Potential difficulties with overt pronoun use due to crosslinguistic influence
  • Teaching Tip: Raising awareness of pronoun distribution rules in the target language vs. bilingual's other language

Conclusion

• Acknowledgement: Thanks to the EU for funding
• Further Information: Website link provided