L2 acquisition of pragmatic and syntactic constraints in the use of overt and null subject pronouns

• Published in: INQUIRIES IN LINGUISTIC DEVELOPMENT: IN HONOR OF LYDIA WHITE, Slabakova, Roumyana, Montrul, Silvina A., & Prevost, Philippe [Eds], Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2006, pp 259-282
• Main Author: Gurel, Ayse
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: The Netherlands John Benjamins Publishing Company 2006
• Subjects: LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS
• ISBN: 9789027232328; 9027232326
• DOI: 10.1075/z.133

It has been observed that overt & null subjects do not have the same distributional properties in a null subject language. That is, there are certain pragmatic & syntactic constraints that determine the occurrence of overt versus null pronominal subjects in a particular context (Enc 1986; Erguvanli-Taylan 1986; Perez-Leroux & Glass 1997, 1999). Subject pronouns have to be overt where the subject has an emphatic or contrastive function or indicates a topic shift (Enc 1986). Null pronouns, on the other hand, are used in non-contrastive contexts. It has also been known that overt & null pronouns demonstrate different interpretative properties as bound variable or referential pronouns (Montalbetti 1984; Saito & Hoji 1983). The binding contrast between overt & null pronouns in the context of quantified antecedents is formulated by Montalbetti (1984) under the Overt Pronoun Constraint (OPC) & postulated as a property of Universal Grammar (UG). This paper investigates the L2 acquisition of pragmatic & syntactic constraints that determine the use of overt & null subject pronouns in Turkish. The acquisition of syntactic constraints governing the use of overt & null pronouns is investigated in the context of Binding Principle B within the framework of the OPC. Second language (L2) Turkish data from native English speakers are discussed with reference to persistent first language (L1) transfer effects in the end-state L2 grammar. Tables, Figures, References. Adapted from the source document