Hello! My name is Tihana Kraš and
in this presentation I will discuss the development of null and overt
subject pronouns in multilingual speakers. Some languages, such as Italian, Spanish, Croatian,
Polish, Greek, Hebrew and Arabic are null-subject languages. In these languages, in the pre-verbal
position of finite clauses, subject pronouns can be both omitted or expressed. If they're
omitted, they're called null-subject pronouns, and if they are expressed, they're called
overt subject pronouns. Both options are illustrated in Italian on the slide. If after the sentence "Emma ha imparato a nuotare", meaning "Emma has learned how to swim", we say "È felice", meaning "She's happy", we are using a null pronoun at the beginning of the sentence, and if we say "Lei è felice", which also means
"She's happy", we are using an overt pronoun. In non-null-subject languages, such as English,
French and German, subject pronouns always need to be expressed, so only overt subject pronouns are
possible. The two types of pronouns in null-subject languages have different functions in discourse.
To explain what they are, I need to introduce the concept of the antecedent. The antecedent is the
noun or the noun phrase that a pronoun refers to. Pronouns agree in person, number
and gender with their antecedents. Going back to the functions of null and overt subject
pronouns in discourse, null pronouns typically refer to topical antecedents (those that are in
the focus of attention at the moment of speaking), while overt pronouns typically refer to
non-topical antecedents (those that are not in the focus of attention). This can also be Illustrated
in the example on the slide. If after the sentence "Emma ha imparato a nuotare", we say "È felice", so we use the null pronoun, we are probably
saying that Emma herself is happy because she has learned how to swim. On the other hand, if
we say "Lei è felice", so we use the overt pronoun, we are most likely saying that it is someone else
who is happy because Emma has learned how to swim. This other referent can be
identified from a broader context. When it comes to contexts within a sentence, it has
been proposed that Italian subject pronouns tend to refer to different antecedents. More precisely,
it has been proposed that the null pronoun tends to refer to an antecedent in the subject position
because subjects are the prototypical topics of a sentence, while the overt pronoun tends to
refer to an antecedent in a non-subject position. In the example on the slide, this would mean that
in the sentence, "Marina ha salutato Nina mentre correva", meaning "Marina greeted Nina while she was running", it is
most likely Marina who was running because the subordinate clause contains a null pronoun,
and Marina is the subject of the main clause. On the other hand, in the sentence "Marina ha salutato Nina mentre lei correva", it is probably Nina who was running because the subordinate clause contains an overt
pronoun, and Nina is the object of the main clause. This proposal has received support in empirical studies. Native speakers of Italian indeed identify
the pronoun antecedents in line with it. The same proposal has been shown to apply to
Croatian. In the sentences with a null pronoun, such as "Marina je pozdravila Ninu dok je trčala", meaning "Marina greeted Nina while she was running", Croatian native speakers, in most cases, identify Marina as the one who was running,
while in the sentences with an overt pronoun, such as "Marina je pozdravila Ninu dok je ona trčala", they predominantly identify Nina as the one who was running. The comprehension and production of null and overt
subject pronouns lies at interface of syntax and discourse-pragmatics. Syntax determines
whether both null and overt subject pronouns are possible in a language. On the other
hand, it is discourse-pragmatics that determines when each of the two forms
are used, that is their distribution. In line with this, we can say that the acquisition
of subject pronouns contains two components. The first component consists in learning whether null subject pronouns are present or absent in a language, while the second component consists in
acquiring the rules that govern the distribution of null and overt subject pronouns. When it comes
to the acquisition of subject pronouns in multilingual speakers, it has been shown that the first of these two components is relatively unproblematic, while the second one can sometimes
pose difficulties. Let's take a closer look at Italian, a language that has been
extensively studied in relation to this topic. Studies on Italian have shown that highly
proficient English-Italian and Spanish-Italian bilinguals produce and accept overt subject
pronouns referring to inappropriate topical antecedents to a significantly greater extent than
monolingual speakers. It can be said that they overgeneralise overt subject pronouns to context
in which null subject pronouns are required. On the other hand, they produce and interpret
null subject pronouns appropriately. Which bilinguals were tested in these
studies? The bilinguals tested include English-Italian and Spanish-Italian
simultaneous bilingual children, adult near-native speakers of Italian whose native
language was English and adult near-native speakers of English who were undergoing
attrition in their native language, Italian. A lot of the evidence that has led to
these generalisations has been obtained by a picture selection task originally
used by Tsimpli and colleagues in 2004. In this task, participants were presented
with a sentence and a set of three pictures. They were asked to select all the pictures
that matched the sentence in meaning. The sentence consisted of two clauses: one main
and one subordinate. The main clause contained two noun phrases, in the role of the subject
and the object, while the subordinate clause contained an overt or a null subject pronoun that
matched the two noun phrases in number and gender. The subordinate clause either
preceded or followed the main clause. By selecting the pictures, participants were in
fact identifying possible antecedents of the subject pronoun used in the subordinate clause. For example, if the sentence was "Il papà saluta il figlio mentre va in bicicletta", meaning "Dad greets the son while he goes on
a bicycle", the participants had to decide who was going on a bicycle: Dad, as shown
on picture one, the son, is represented by picture two, or another person, not mentioned
in the sentence, as picture three depicts. If they chose picture one, they identified the
subject of the main clause as the antecedent of the pronoun. If they chose picture two, the object,
also called the complement, and if they chose picture three, an extralinguistic referent, not mentioned in
the sentence. Sentences such as this one, with a null pronoun, did not pose any difficulties to the
bilingual speakers, but those with the overt one did. These difficulties can be seen in the
results of Sorace and Filiaci (2006), in which the previously described picture
selection task was used to test near-native speakers of Italian whose native language was
English, as well as native speakers of Italian. The figure on the left shows the participants'
responses to the sentences of the type "Il papà saluta il figlio mentre lui va in bicicletta", meaning "Dad greets the son while he goes on a bicycle". In this sentence, the overt pronoun follows its
potential antecedents. In the figure, the lighter bars show the native speakers' responses, and the
darker bars, the near-native speakers' responses. We can see that both participant groups
preferred the complement as the pronoun antecedent. However, the near-native speakers chose the subject
as the pronoun antecedent more often than the native speakers. This difference has proven
to be significant in a statistical analysis. The figure on the right shows the participants'
responses to the sentences of the type "Mentre lui va in bicicletta, il papà saluta il figlio", meaning "While he goes on a bicycle,
Dad greets the son". In this sentence, the overt pronoun precedes its potential antecedents.
We can see that the responses of the two groups of participants differed to a greater
extent in this figure than in the previous one. The two participant groups preferred a different antecedent for the overt pronoun: the native speakers preferred the extralinguistic referent,
while the non-native speakers, preferred the subject. In addition, the near-native speakers chose the
subject as the pronoun antecedent significantly more often than the native speakers. Therefore, in
both cases, the near-native speakers accepted overt pronouns referring to inappropriate
topical antecedents, that is the subject of the main clause, to significantly
greater extent than the native speakers. However, not all multilinguals were shown to have
problems acquiring the rules that govern the distribution of null and over subject pronouns.
In a series of studies on Italian, highly proficient Croatian-Italian bilinguals were shown not to
accept more Italian overt subject pronouns referring to inappropriate topical antecedents
then the age-matched Italian monolinguals. This applies to adult L2 Learners, child
L2 learners and simultaneous bilinguals. What is more, child L2 learners and
simultaneous bilinguals were shown to accept fewer Italian overt subject pronouns referring
to topical antecedents then the age-matched Italian monolinguals. Importantly, Croatian-Italian
bilinguals were shown to interpret Italian null subject pronouns appropriately, similarly to
English-Italian and Spanish-Italian bilinguals. The absence of difficulties with the interpretation of
overt subject pronouns can be seen in the results of Kraš (2008), in which near-native speakers
of Italian whose native language was Croatian were tested together with native speakers of
Italian. In this study, a modified version of the task used by Tsimpli and colleagues in 2004
was used. In this version, the participant could choose only one picture for each sentence. Looking
at the results for the same type of sentences as shown previously, that is sentences with the overt
pronoun, we can see that neither in the sentences in which the pronoun follows its potential
antecedents, shown on the left, nor in the sentences in which the pronoun precedes its potential
antecedents, shown on the right, the near-native speakers chose the subject as the pronoun
antecedent more often than the native speakers. To summarise the findings on Italian, evidence from a number of studies points
to the target-like interpretation of overt subject pronouns in Croatian-Italian bilinguals in
contrast to the non-targetlike interpretation of overt subject pronouns in English-Italian and
Spanish-Italian bilinguals. What could explain these differences? I believe that these differences
could be explained by crosslinguistic influence, that is by the influence of one language on
another in the mind of a bilingual speaker. Let's compare the four languages
involved in the relevant studies. In the table, we can see that Italian and Croatian
use identical means to refer to topical and non-topical antecedents, that is null and overt
subject pronouns respectively. On the other hand, Spanish uses both null and overt subject pronouns
to refer to topical antecedents and only overt subject pronouns to refer to non-topical
antecedents. Finally, as a non-null-subject language, English uses overt subject pronouns to
refer to both topical and non-topical antecedents. I believe that the fact that English uses
exclusively overt subject pronouns and Spanish both null and overt subject pronouns
to refer to topical antecedents could influence the way English-iIalian and Spanish-Italian
bilinguals use overt subject pronouns in Italian. More precisely, I believe that under the influence
of their other language, these bilinguals use overt subject pronouns in Italian to refer not only
to non-topical, but also to topical antecedents. On the other hand, Croatian-Italian bilinguals
use only null subject pronouns in Italian to refer to topical antecedents because
this is what they do in Croatian as well. More evidence coming from studies focusing
on other null-subject languages and directly comparing bilinguals speaking different language
combinations is needed to see if the bilinguals' difficulties with overt subject pronouns are
indeed caused by crosslinguistic influence. To summarise, in null-subject languages, subject
pronouns can be null or overt. Null subject pronouns are used to refer to topical antecedents and
overt subject pronouns to refer to non-topical antecedents. Acquiring the rules that govern the
distribution of null and overt subject pronouns can be difficult for multilinguals. More precisely,
some highly proficient bilinguals have been shown to overgeneralise overt subject pronouns to
contexts in which null subject pronouns are required. On the other hand, they use null subject pronouns
appropriately. The bilinguals' difficulties with the use of overt subject pronouns might
be caused by crosslinguistic influence. What teachers should remember from
this presentation is that the distribution of null and overt subject pronouns in null-subject
languages may pose difficulties to bilingual speakers. The properties of the bilingual's other
language seem to play a role in the presence or absence of these difficulties. For this reason,
I believe that raising awareness of the way in which null and overt subject pronouns are used in
the target language and comparing it to the way in which subject pronouns are used in the
bilingual's other language may facilitate acquisition. Thank you for your attention and to the EU for
funding the preparation of this presentation. If you would like to learn more about the project within which this presentation was
developed, please visit this website.