Are discourse comprehension and cognitive processes influenced by the type of language language (English and Spanish)? A cross-language study based on elaborative inferences generation (original) (raw)
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In this paper, we extend investigations of the possible effects of cross-linguistic influence at the pragmatics-syntax interface (Hulk & Müller 2000; Müller & Hulk 2001; Serratrice, Sorace & Paoli 2004), by presenting two experiments designed to probe how Spanish monolingual and Spanish-English bilingual preschool-age children approach the 'some, but not all' scalar implicature (SI) associated with algunos ('some'). We compare algunos and unos (also a 'some' indefinite, but one that is not context-linked and does not induce an SI), and algunos and todos (the universal quantifier 'every/all'). The performance of the children is compared to fluent adult Spanish heritage speakers. Experiment 1 is a variation of Noveck's (2001) statement evaluation task, also replicated by Guasti et al. (2005). Experiment 2 is a forced-choice picture selection task. Results demonstrate that adults were the only group to consistently calculate the SI associated with algunos – a finding that was expected to some extent, given that our tasks were stripped of the contextual support that could benefit children's pragmatic reasoning. While bilingual and monolingual children displayed comparable performance across tasks, bilinguals in Experiment 2 appeared to experience difficulty with judgments related to todos – a pattern we attribute (in light of independent findings) to the cognitive overload in the task, not the lexical entry of this quantifier. We conclude that young monolingual and bilingual children confront the same challenges when called upon to deploy pragmatic skills in a discourse context.
2019
ABSTRACT: This paper analyses the choice of sloppy and strict interpretations of reflexive anaphora in verb phrase ellipsis from the perspective of Relevance Theory (RT) (Sperber and Wilson 1986, 1995, 2002, 2008; Wilson and Sperber 2002, 2004). Forty-four Spanish learners of English and 29 native speakers of English were administered two judgement tasks designed to gauge the effect of the Communicative Principle of Relevance on their interpretation of reflexive anaphora in bare, referential and non-referential contexts. Results showed that, in accordance with this principle, the sloppy interpretation is favoured in bare and non-referential contexts, while strict readings prevail in referential contexts, these preferences being less marked for L2 learners than for native speakers. Moreover, the sloppy interpretation is chosen more frequently when native speakers are given a non-referential context, whereas it decreases when L2 learners are provided with the very same context, indica...
La diversidad de las lenguas y la ciencia cognitiva
Lingüística en la Red, 2018
El objetivo de esta contribución es plantear un análisis crítico de la relevancia de la diversidad de las lenguas para la lingüística y la ciencia cognitiva contemporáneas. Para ello se considera el planteamiento del “paradigma cognitivo-funcional” en contraste con el “paradigma biolingüístico”. Se analizan las nociones de Gramática Universal y de Facultad del Lenguaje como conceptos clave en esta controversia y se critica la posición del paradigma cognitivo-funcional a través de la discusión de la teoría de la coevolución del lenguaje y del cerebro y del llamado neorelativismo. Se concluye que la diferente percepción de la profundidad de la diversidad de las lenguas que emerge en las dos aproximaciones es en realidad consecuencia de una diferente concepción de la naturaleza última del lenguaje y de las lenguas, y que, una vez que esto se reconoce, en realidad hay más compatiblidad entre los dos puntos de vista de lo que habitualmente se asume.
Prediction at the Discourse Level in Spanish-English Bilinguals: An Eye-Tracking Study
Frontiers in Psychology, 2019
In two experiments, we examine English monolinguals' and Spanish-English bilinguals' ability to predict an upcoming pronoun referent based on the Implicit Causality (IC) bias of the verb. In an eye-tracking experiment, the monolingual data show anticipation of the upcoming referent for NP1-bias verbs. For bilinguals, the same effect is found, showing that bilinguals are not slower than monolinguals at processing the information associated with the IC of the verb. In an off-line experiment, both groups showed knowledge of IC bias information for the verbs used in the eye-tracking experiment. Based on the findings of the two experiments, we show that highly proficient bilinguals have similar online and off-line predictions based on IC verb information than monolingual speakers.
International Journal of Bilingualism, 2023
Aims and Objectives: Bilingual speakers that speak a null subject (Spanish) and a non-null subject language (English) may show some indeterminacy in referential choice in their non-dominant language in comparison to monolingual speakers (e.g., Contemori & Ivanova, 2020; Montrul, 2004, 2018). The present study tests the production of referring expressions in the two languages of bilingual speakers (Spanish and English) to assess attainment at the discourse level and explore the role of language dominance on referential choice. Methodology: A group of forty-nine Spanish-English bilinguals participated in a picture description task in English and Spanish measuring referential choice in contexts of reference maintenance and topic-shift. Data and Analysis: The results of our study show that at a group level, bilingual speakers produced more underspecified references in maintenance contexts than English monolingual speakers and produced more over-specified references in topic-maintenance and topic-shift contexts than Spanish monolingual speakers. The results further show that language dominance in the target language is associated with more monolingual-like referential choice. Conclusions: We discuss the role of language dominance in the development of bilingual referential choice patterns.
2011
Esta tesis aborda dos problemas interrelacionados en el análisis de las estructuras gramaticales en situaciones de interacción: (i) el reto teórico-metodológico de integrar informaciones de distintos niveles lingüísticos (entonativos, morfosintácticos y semántico-pragmáticos) en el análisis de las estructuras y (ii) el reconocimiento de estructuras y categorías desatendidas en la tradición gramatical. En la primera parte, de carácter teórico, se discute la conveniencia de adoptar un modelo construccional para el análisis de la gramática en interacción. Para ello, se revisa críticamente el conjunto de acercamientos a la gramática que conforman la Gramática de Construcciones y se propone un nuevo modelo: la Gramática de Construcciones en Interacción. Se trata de un modelo de representación gramatical basado en construcciones sensible a información de tipo interaccional (unidades conversacionales, actividades interaccionales, participantes en la interacción, principalmente). En la segunda parte, se aplica el modelo teórico propuesto al análisis de un fenómeno del español habitualmente desatendido en las descripciones gramaticales de esta lengua: el empleo de marcas de subordinación en estructuras sintácticamente independientes. Por una parte, se sistematiza la información disponible acerca de estas estructuras en la bibliografía hispánica y se pone en relación con otras propuestas disponibles en la lingüística general. Por otra, se propone un análisis basado en corpus que aplica el modelo de análisis propuesto en la primera parte. La Gramática de Construcciones en Interacción permite analizar de forma coherente y exhaustiva los rasgos formales e interpretativos de un grupo de estructuras características del español oral espontáneo, al tiempo que permite ubicar estas estructuras en el conjunto de construcciones que constituye la gramática del español y explicar su valor comunicativo en situaciones de interacción oral. This dissertation addresses two interrelated problems in the analysis of grammatical structures in interaction: (i) the theoretical and methodological challenge of integrating features that belong to different linguistic levels (intonation, morphosyntax and meaning-function) in the analysis of structures and ( ii) the recognition of structures and categories neglected in descriptive grammars. In the first part, adopting a theoretical point of view, I discuss the adequacy of a constructional approach to grammar in order to analyze the grammatical constructions in interaction. To achieve this, I critically review different versions of Construction Grammar, and I propose a new version: Interactional Construction Grammar. Interactional Construction Grammar is a construction-based approach to grammar that incorporates interactional information (units conversational interactional activities, participants in interaction, among other features). In the second part, the model is applied to an often overlooked phenomenon in Spanish: the use of subordination marks in independent structures. First, I systemize information available about these structures in Spanish literature. Secondly, I relate it to other proposals available in general linguistics. Finally, I propose a corpus-based analysis that applies the model proposed in the first part. Interactional Construction Grammar allows a coherent and comprehensive analysis of the form and meaning of insubordinated structures. At the same time, the model allows the analyst to place these structures in Spanish grammar as a whole and describes its meaning in terms of interactional activities.