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Article published In: Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism
Vol. 15:3 (2025) ► pp.311–341

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Pronoun interpretation in Italian

Exploring the effects of prosody

ORCiD logo with link | McGill University
ORCiD logo with link | McGill University
ORCiD logo with link | Université Laval
ORCiD logo with link | Université Laval
ORCiD logo with link | York University
 | Beijing Foreign Studies University
Published online: 8 February 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.22013.whi
Abstract
We explore potential effects of prosody on pronoun interpretation in Italian, building on previous research which has shown that second language learners/users (L2ers) assign non-target interpretations to overt pronouns. We investigate effects of contrastive stress and pause, proposing that these will result in changes to default antecedent preferences for overt and null pronouns, for L2ers and for native speakers. An experiment was conducted, involving English-speaking L2ers of Italian and Italian native speakers. Participants were presented with auditory stimuli like Lorenzo ha scritto a Roberto quando Ø/lui si è trasferito a Torino ‘Lorenzo wrote to Roberto when (he) moved to Turin’ and indicated their preferred antecedent for the pronoun. Overt versus null pronouns, presence versus absence of stress on overt pronouns, and presence versus absence of pause between clauses were manipulated. The results yielded significant differences for antecedent choices between null and overt pronouns, consistent with earlier literature. In addition, stress was significant for both groups. Implications of a prosodic approach to ambiguity resolution are discussed.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Previous findings on anaphora resolution
    • 1.2Prosodic effects on pronoun interpretation
  • 2.Experiment
    • 2.1Predictions
    • 2.2Sentence types
    • 2.3Participants
    • 2.4Procedure
    • 2.5Results and analysis
  • 3.Discussion
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Competing interests declaration
  • Data availability statement
  • References
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Teixeira, Joana, Alexandra Fiéis & Ana Madeira
2025. Are non-native speakers sensitive to microvariation in anaphora resolution?. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 15:5 ► pp. 688 ff. DOI logo

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