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In:New Frontiers and Connections in Second Language Acquisition: Selected Proceedings of the 17th Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition (GASLA-17) Conference
Edited by Tania Ionin and Silvina Montrul
[Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 71] 2026
► pp. 33–50

Pronoun interpretation in L1 and L2 English

When native speaker performance is unexpected

 | McGill University
 | McGill University
 | Université Laval
 | Université Laval
 | York University
 | Beijing Foreign Studies University
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
We examine pronoun interpretation in an overt subject language (English) by L2 learners from a null subject L1 (Italian), using a task where participants choose potential antecedents for pronouns in bi-clausal sentences which manipulate presence or absence of stress on the pronoun and presence or absence of a pause between clauses. Results show that learners are sensitive to the overturning effect of stress, resulting in a shift away from an antecedent prominent in the discourse, but that native speakers are not. Sensitivity for the learners may arise from prosodic properties of their null subject L1; lack of sensitivity for the native speakers may suggest that prosody alone is insufficient to influence antecedent choice for speakers from overt subject languages and that richer contextual cues are required.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Pronoun interpretation in null and overt subject languages
  • 3.Previous L2 research
  • 4.Hypothesis and predictions
  • 5.Experiment
    • 5.1Participants
    • 5.2Pronoun interpretation task
      • 5.2.1Procedure
      • 5.2.2Stimuli
  • 6.Results
    • 6.1Test sentences
    • 6.2Fillers
  • 7.Discussion
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
References (29)
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