Anaphoric dependencies in child L1 and L2 Basque

Iraola, M. 1, 2 & Ezeizabarrena, M. 2

1 Universität Konstanz
2 UPV/EHU

Studies on the acquisition of anaphoric dependencies in null-subject languages have shown that the distribution of null and overt pronouns is not optional. Moreover, they have revealed some pragmatic deviance in the use of overt pronouns, which are overaccepted in topic maintenance contexts in developing grammars. In this regard, extralinguistic factors such as the age of acquisition and/or input have been considered to affect children's performance. The present study deals with the interpretation of Basque null and overt pronouns in transitive sentences by different Basque-Spanish bilinguals (L1 and L2 6-7-year-olds and native adults) in order to test the effect of age and input in their performance. Basque is a language lacking true third-person pronouns where the demonstrative hura "that" is said to fulfill the function of the third-person pronoun in other languages. Performance data from a Picture Selection Task revealed that only adults show evidence for a division of labour: whereas null pronouns are coreferent with the preceding subject, overt pronouns are coreferent with the extrasentential referent. In contrast, both child groups, who do not differ significantly in their antecedent choices, show a preference for the preceding subject, regardless of pronoun type. Hence, children's overextension of overt pronouns referring to topic antecedents converges with the general outcome from crosslinguistic developmental studies. Similar to what has been observed in child Italian and Spanish, both child groups are still on the way to acquire the specific discursive properties of the low frequent overt pronoun hura. Input rather than age of acquisition seems to explain the target-deviant interpretations of both groups of bilingual children.