La elipsis verbal y la resolución de la anáfora reflexiva en la adquisición de segundas lenguas: un estudio con aprendices españoles de inglés (original) (raw)
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Miscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies, 2019
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, indicating that ...
Implicatures in Discourse: The Case of Spanish NP Anaphora
Hispania, 2006
Reviewed by Marta Luján Blackwell's book presents a pragmatic theory of anaphora, backed by empirical evidence and purported to elucidate the nature of discourse anaphora, more specifically, the use and interpretation of third-person reference in discourse in Spanish. Two main questions are initially proposed. First, what determines the speaker's choice between a pronominal and a non-pronominal expression, or between a null subject and an overt one, in the normal exchange of conversation or oral narrative? Second, how is a chosen nominal term successfully interpreted by the addressee? These questions are answered on the basis of two genres of spoken Spanish, elicited conversations and narratives, collected from native speakers from the Aragon region in northeastern Spain. Blackwell analyzes these data in the light of Levison's 'neo-Gricean' principles, and an intricate set of subsidiary notions, which cover from 'saliency' to c-command and agreement. Chapter 1 (Introduction) lays out the scope and objectives of the work: to analyze the use and interpretation of definite NP anaphora in conversational and narrative discourse in Spanish within a 'neo-Gricean' framework of conversational implicature, which incorporates grammatical, semantic and pragmatic constraints on coreference. Blackwell also seeks to unveil some of the social, cultural, and interactional factors that influence the production and interpretation of discourse anaphors in Spanish, that is, overt, null and clitic pronouns, and reflexives. The chapter gives an overview of 'anaphora' , as traditionally understood, and of definite NP anaphora or 'coreference'. It is claimed that, since pronouns and their antecedents may be in separate sentences and involve different speakers, the phenomenon must be assumed to be primarily discourse related, requiring treatment by a pragmatic theory such as a modified version of Grice's theory of implicatures. However, the importance of c-command as a structural condition in sentence internal anaphora is recognized, as well as the three possible referential relations, namely, obligatory coreference (involving reflexives), obligatory non-coreference (involving pronouns), and optional (or free) coreference (involving pronouns). Rather than adhering to the traditional division of sentence-level and discourse-level anaphora, Blackwell's objective
The resolution of ambiguous anaphora in English, Spanish, and Portuguese
2021
This study aims to determine how (a) ambiguity resolution differs in English, Spanish, and Portuguese; (b) L2 learners are influenced by their L1 regarding ambiguity resolution; and (c) the order of the clauses, (d) the salience of the anaphor, or (e) the choice of verbs may affect this process. A total of 181 people answered an online survey and selected the antecedent of the anaphor for 16 ambiguous sentences. The Position of Antecedent Strategy was tested for the three languages and the conclusion was that it applies to European and Brazilian Portuguese, but not for Spanish or English. While Spanish and English native speakers tend to interpret the subject of the subordinate clause as corresponding to the subject of the main clause, learners are influenced by their L1 and seem uncertain especially on how to resolve pronominal cataphora. Finally, we have concluded that semantics has a great influence on the resolution of ambiguous anaphora in these languages, and we suggest that i...
Anaphora interpretations in Spanish utterances and the neo-Gricean pragmatic theory
Journal of Pragmatics, 2000
Levinson (1987a,b, 1991) advocates using a set of revised Gricean maxims to account for preferred interpretations of zeros, pronouns, and lexical NPs. This study tests the viability of one of Levinson's (1987a,b) neo-Gricean principles and predictions arising from this principle with regard to the interpretation of non-clitic reflexives versus pronouns when used in the same linguistic environment in Spanish utterances. Also, following Huang's (1991, 1994) observation that pragmatic inferences must be in keeping with semantic and pragmatic 'consistency constraints', it was hypothesized that anaphora interpretations in Spanish would be constrained by antecedent salience, background knowledge, and semantic constraints, as well as grammatical constraints including c-command and agreement, and that these constraints could override implicatures of coreference and disjoint reference predicted by Levinson. An oral comprehension test for anaphora interpretations in Spanish utterances was administered to 105 native speakers. Results reveal that hearers abide by several of Levinson's neo-Gricean sub-maxims. However, Levinson's prediction of a contrast in reference from the use of a pronoun versus a reflexive in the same environment was often overridden by the consistency constraints. These findings suggest that consistency constraints on implicatures play a greater role in anaphora interpretation than Levinson's model had predicted.
The Resolution of Ambiguous Anaphora in Portuguese, English and Spanish (A Pilot Study)
2021
▪ ABSTRACT: This paper presents the results of a pilot study that aims to analyse the differences in the resolution of ambiguous anaphora in Portuguese, English, and Spanish as first languages (L1) and as second languages (L2). To collect the data, a questionnaire was developed and applied to national and foreign students at the University of Algarve, in Faro, Portugal. The conclusions are that native English speakers usually interpret the anaphoric pronoun in the subject position of the subordinate clause as corresponding to the subject of the main clause, regardless of whether the pronoun receives emphasis or not. Portuguese and Spanish native speakers, on the other hand, seem to use the Position of Antecedent Strategy (CARMINATI, 2002) in cases of anaphora, but the preference becomes less evident when reversing the order of sentences (cases of cataphora). Besides the syntactic variables, the phrases were designed to investigate the influence of the semantic relation between the v...
Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 2020
Referential expressions (REs) have been investigated in L2 English but to date there is no single study that systematically and simultaneously analyzes the development and acquisition of the multiple factors that constrain the choice of REs in natural discourse production. We investigate L1 Spanish–L2 English learners across three proficiency levels versus an English control group from the COREFL corpus. An analysis of both the RE and its antecedent(s) reveals that different intra- and extralinguistic factors constrain the choice of REs (information status, activated antecedents, syntactic configurations, characterhood, within-task effect, and proficiency level). L2 learners (L2ers) are sensitive to some factors but are unable to fully attain native-like levels even at advanced stages. They do not transfer null subjects from their L1 contrary to previous L2 research, and do not find all contexts at the syntax-discourse interface equally problematic, thus confirming previous theoreti...
Journal of Pragmatics, 2001
This article examines the second half of a set of data from a study carried out to seek evidence of the neo-Gricean pragmatic principles proposed by Levinson (1987a,b, 1991) to account for the interpretation of NP anaphora. Whereas Blackwell (2000) addresses native speakers' interpretations of Spanish non-clitic reflexives versus pronouns when used in the same linguistic environment, the data analyzed in this article involves the interpretation of Spanish null subjects, pronouns, and lexical NPs. The objective of this portion of the study is to determine whether Levinson's predictions of coreference and non-coreference, which, Levinson argues, arise from the interaction of neo-Gricean principles, are supported by hearers' interpretations of coreference in Spanish utterances. An oral comprehension test for the interpretation of anaphoric NPs in Spanish utterances was devised and administered to 105 native speakers in northeastern Spain. The results reveal that, although evidence of several of Levinson's neo-Gricean sub-maxims is reflected in the data, his prediction of non-coreference from the use of a marked NP is often canceled by semantic and pragmatic 'consistency constraints' on coreference, as suggested by Huang (199 1, 1994). The listeners' interpretations of coreference can be attributed primarily to inferences arising from the influence of one or more consistency constraints on coreference, as opposed to inferences based on the use of a marked lexical NP instead of an unmarked, minimal form. The central role that consistency * I would like to thank Jacob Mey and three anonymous Journal of Pragmatics referees for their invaluable help and insightful comments on earlier versions of this article. I would also like to express my greatest indebtedness to Dr. Susan Berk-Seligson for her guidance in designing the methodology used in the study reported in this article and in Blackwell (2000), and also my sincere thanks to Yan Huang, whose insightful research has inspired my own. Finally, I would like thank my family and friends from Malejti (Zaragoza), Spain for their constant support and help in carrying out this study.
Frames of Reference and Antecedentless Anaphora in Spanish Conversation
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 2017
This study examines native Spanish speakers' use of anaphoric pronouns and null subjects in conversational discourse in the absence of coreferential antecedents. It also considers the adequacy of Gundel et al.'s proposal (Language 69(2):274-307, 1993) that the cognitive status "in focus" corresponds with speakers' use of minimal referring expressions (i.e., unstressed pronouns and zeros). Analysis of naturally occurring Spanish conversation shows how the felicitous use and interpretation of non-canonical (antecedentless) anaphoric pronouns and null subjects are possible due to the activation of underlying cognitive frames that are shared by the interlocutors. Furthermore, the speaker's mention of a referent, dubbed a "neighborhood antecedent" by Langacker (Conceptual grouping and pronominal anaphora, in: Fox (ed) Studies in anaphora, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1996), and the information "filled in" over the course of the conversation on account of the activation of relevant cognitive frames, both license and disambiguate the non-canonical anaphoric relations.
Comprehension of Marked Pronouns in Spanish and English: Object Anaphors Cross-linguistically
Previous research on pronoun resolution has identified several individual factors that are deemed to be important for resolving reference. In this paper we will argue that of these factors, plausibility is the most important, but interacts with form markedness and structural parallelism. We investigated how listeners resolved object pronouns that were ambiguous in the sense of having more than one possible antecedent. We manipulated the form of the anaphoric expression in terms of accentuation (English: Experiments 1a and 2a) and morphology (Spanish: Experiments 1b and 2b). We looked at sentences where both antecedents were equally plausible, or where only one of the antecedents was plausible. Listeners generally resolved toward the (parallel) grammatical object of the previous clause. When the pronouns were marked due to accentuation (English) or use of specific morphology (Spanish), preference switched to the alternative antecedent, the grammatical subject of the previous clause. In contrast, when one of the two antecedents was a much more plausible antecedent than the other, antecedent choice was almost wholly dictated by plausibility, although reference form prominence did significantly attenuate the strength of the preference.