L2 knowledge at the Mapping of Syntax and Discourse

Abstract

In this article, I will present partial results of three experiments that deal with the second language (L2) acquisition of the same phenomenon: Clitic Left Dislocation (CLLD) in Spanish and Bulgarian by native English speakers. This is the phenomenon where an object that is previously mentioned in the discourse (a Topic) moves to the beginning of the sentence, and is doubled by a clitic agreeing with it in person, number, and gender. Because the acceptability of this word order depends on the previous discourse, this linguistic construction is evaluated at the interface of syntax and discourse. The Interface Hypothesis (Sorace & Serratrice, 2009; Sorace, 2011) argues that acquisition of such constructions present possibly insurmountable problems even in very advanced L2 speakers. I will discuss findings from Valenzuela (2005, 2006), Ivanov (2009), and Slabakova, Kempchinsky & Rothman (in revision), which demonstrate successful acquisition of Bulgarian and Spanish topicalization constructions. I will show that all these findings argue against a strong version of the Interface Hypothesis, and I will discuss why acquisition of this type is interesting to study.