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The L3 syntax–discourse interface*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2013

ROUMYANA SLABAKOVA  and
MARÍA DEL PILAR GARCÍA MAYO
ROUMYANA SLABAKOVA*
Affiliation:
University of Southampton & University of Iowa
MARÍA DEL PILAR GARCÍA MAYO
Affiliation:
University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU
*
Address for correspondence: Roumyana Slabakova, Department of Modern Languages, Building 65, Faculty of Humanities, University of Southampton, Avenue Campus, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BF, UK[email protected]
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Abstract

This article considers the acquisition of three English syntax–discourse interface constructions: Topicalization, Focus Fronting and Left Dislocation. We use data from Basque–Spanish bilinguals learning English as a third language (L3) as a test case for the Interface Hypothesis (IH, Sorace, 2011). The IH has made specific predictions about second language (L2) acquisition and such predictions can be extrapolated to L3 on the basis of interface delay explanations. Thirty contexts and embedded test sentences with and without pronouns were used; participants had to rate the acceptability of each audio stimulus sentence in the context on a seven-point scale. We tested Basque–Spanish bilinguals dominant in Basque (n = 23), Basque–Spanish bilinguals dominant in Spanish (n = 24), Spanish L2 English learners (n = 39) as well as native English speakers (n = 24). Findings provide evidence against current L3 acquisition models and potential arguments for both cumulative enhancement as well as cumulative inhibition as possible processes in L3 acquisition.

Keywords

L3 acquisitionTopicalizationFocus FrontingLeft DislocationBasqueSpanishEnglishsyntax–discourse interface
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 18 , Special Issue 2: L3 Acquisition: A Focus on Cognitive Approaches , April 2015 , pp. 208 - 226
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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Footnotes

*

The two authors gratefully acknowledge the Ikerbasque Foundation visiting researcher fellowship, whose funding allowed us to undertake the research described in this article. The second author gratefully acknowledges funding from the following research grants: IT-311-10 from the Basque Government, UFI 11/06 from the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU and CSD2007-00012 from the Spanish Ministry of Education. We are extremely grateful to the participants in this test, and to Raquel Fernández Fuertes, Ainara Imaz Agirre and Cristóbal Lozano for recruiting participants. Thanks go to William Davies, Paula Kempchinsky and Christine Shea for sharing their native intuitions with us in the piloting of the test items and to Jorge González Alonso for the statistical analyses. Finally, we thank two anonymous reviewers and the editor for their useful suggestions on how to improve the article.

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