Acquiring Referentiality

This webpage is devoted to the Language Acquisition Meeting on the acquisition of referentiality that took place on April 10th 2015. Invited speakers were Ava Creemers, Manuela Pinto, Shalom Zuckerman, Jeannette Schaeffer, Roumyana Slabakova, Elina Tuniyan and Merel Witteloostuijn. The goal was to bring together researchers who are working on the acquisition of referentiality in general and the acquisition of articles in particular.

Where? Utrecht, Drift 23, room 010

When? April 10th 2015, from 15.15 till 17.00

Next to this small workshop, there was a more informal meeting in the morning during which Roumyana Slabakova presented joint work with Lydia White on the L2 interpretation of pronouns (title and abstract below).

This webpage contains the program, abstracts and handouts of all talks.

Program workshop

15.15-15.30: Introduction

15.30-16.00: Jeannette Schaeffer, Ava Creemers & Merel van Witteloostuijn "Article Choice in children with High Functioning Autism (HFA) and in children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI)"

Abstract

This study reports experimental data on the choice between a definite and an indefinite article by Dutch-speaking children with High Functioning Autism (HFA) and children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). Article choice depends on speaker/hearer assumptions and is thus relies on pragmatic principles. The definite article is used when the referent is known to both speaker and hearer, while the indefinite article is required when only the speaker (referential), or neither speaker nor hearer (non-referential) knows the referent (Heim, 1982; Stalnaker, 1974; 1978).

Our results show that none of the children overgenerate the definite article in indefinite contexts. However, subgroups of both children with HFA and children with SLI overgenerate the indefinite article in definite contexts. We propose that this overgeneration of the indefinite article is due to the fact that these children fail to calculate the pragmatic scalar implicature for definiteness. This scalar implicature holds that the choice of weaker term a suggests that the stronger term the does not hold (Horn, 2006).

Handout

pdf

16.00-16.30: Manuela Pinto & Shalom Zuckerman "Subject pronouns and the form/meaning mapping issue"

Abstract

Subject pronouns are a typical interface phenomenon as competence and use of these linguistic forms require integration of information pertaining to different components of grammar. But which mechanisms are language specific and which reflect more general strategies of reference assignment?

In this talk we examine some data from L1, L2 and 2L1 acquisition trying to argue for more general patterns that may go beyond the traditional +/- pro drop classification.

Handout

ppt

16.30-17.00: Roumyana Slabakova & Elina Tuniyan "Ambiguous the: A new account of the overuse of the definite article in partitive contexts in L2 English"

Abstract

It has been observed that second language (L2) learners of English, who lack articles in their first language (L1), overuse the definite article the in two types of context: an indefinite specific context and an indefinite partitive context. Accordingly, it has been suggested that L2 learners associate the definite article with specificity in the first type of context (Ionin et al. 2004) and with presuppositionality of existence in the previously mentioned set in the second type (Ko et al.2010).

In this paper, we put forth a new explanation of the overuse of the definite article in partitive contexts. Based on the observation that some languages (e.g., Fering, German) encode definiteness in two distinct forms of the definite article, we argue that the definite article in English is ambiguous between the unique article and the anaphoric article. Although either of the articles encodes definiteness, the contexts in which they appear differ. Thus, the unique article is used with a referent that is unique for the speaker and the hearer in a given situation. The anaphoric article, on the other hand, lacks the presupposition of uniqueness and is used with a referent that is identifiable to the speaker and the hearer via previous mention in an immediate discourse context.

Therefore, we suggest that the difficulty in acquisition of the definite article lies in the fact that in some contexts it does not require the presupposition of uniqueness. This, in turn, leads L2 learners to optionally encode uniqueness in the and associate the with anaphoricity. As a consequence, L2 learners tend to overuse the definite article in indefinite partitive contexts, which satisfy the requirement on anaphoricity but lack the presupposition of uniqueness.

Handout

pdf

Morning session

Roumyana Slabakova & Lydia White "Pronoun Interpretation in the Second Language"

Abstract

A much-studied phenomenon in first language (L1) acquisition concerns the fact that children have greater difficulty in interpreting sentences with pronouns than with reflexives, the so-called Delay of Principle B Effect (DPBE). In addition, Chien and Wexler (1990) reported that children are more accurate when pronouns refer to quantified antecedents (e.g. Every bear is touching her) than to referential antecedents (e.g. Mama Bear is touching her). A recent study by Hartman, Sudo & Wexler (2012) established that English-speaking L1 acquirers were significantly more adult-like when they heard a reduced English pronoun as opposed to a full pronoun (e.g. John saw'm versus John saw him).

If the DPBE reflects difficulties due to an elevated processing load (Reinhart 2006), then a similar difficulty of interpretation might be expected for (non-advanced) L2 learners, with differences in accuracy on reduced versus full pronouns, as well as better performance on quantified antecedents compared to referential ones.

To investigate this issue, we look at the performance of adult learners of English (L1s French and Spanish) on sentences with reduced and full pronouns bound by referential and quantified antecedents. The task is a Truth Value Judgment Task, administered online; test sentences manipulate pronoun type and antecedent type and are presented aurally. These sentences are judged in the context of stories (presented aurally and visually). L2 learners of intermediate proficiency show a discrepancy in accuracy on quantificational versus referential antecedents, as well as on reduced versus full pronouns, in accord with the claim that full pronoun interpretation strains processing resources. Advanced learners were as accurate as native speakers. We will speculate on pedagogical implications of our findings.

Handout

pdf

Don't hesitate to contact Bert Le Bruyn (b.s.w.lebruyn@uu.nl) if you have any questions.

The workshop is financially supported by NWO (grant 275-80-006).