While previous work on postverbal subjects in Italian has shown that young children are sensitive... more While previous work on postverbal subjects in Italian has shown that young children are sensitive to the effects of argument structure and definiteness, little is known about the acquisition of postverbal subjects at the VP-periphery. In response, the present study investigated such subjects under new-information focus by monolingual Italian children (6;1 – 7;4). For this, we employed an elicitation task and a forced-choice task. The results indicated that the children use postverbal subjects at the VP-periphery felicitously, although they do not perform at ceiling. Unexpectedly, the results also suggested possible remnant difficulty with the definiteness effect. However, after comparison with adult data we argue that this is not a developmental issue and instead may suggest that our children were aware that the definiteness effect is not about definiteness per se.
In the present work we focus on institutional communication in a period of crisis. In particular ... more In the present work we focus on institutional communication in a period of crisis. In particular we are interested in the communications of the Italian and Finnish governments during the health emergency raised by the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyse and compare two press releases given by the Italian and Finnish Prime Ministers at the very beginning and at the end of the so-called first stage of the pandemic. The analysis aims at i) describing the effectiveness of the speeches applying six parameters that we previously identified as crucial for efficient communication, and ii) exploring the lexical choice of the Prime Ministers in relation to it.
In this paper we investigate the distribution of overt subject pronouns in the Italian of three d... more In this paper we investigate the distribution of overt subject pronouns in the Italian of three dubbed films. Previous studies have shown that audiovisual translations into Italian exhibit a certain amount of 'novel' solutions in language usage at interface levels due to interference from the source language. This paper focuses on one particular area of interference, i.e. the distribution of overt subject pronouns in pragmatically marked and unmarked contexts, which is observed in a corpus of two full-length films and an episode of a television series, all dubbed from Finnish into Italian. The results show that in dubbed Italian overt subject pronouns are also used in contexts in which they would not be expected. We identify four main categories of overuse of subject pronouns which are presented taking into account the properties of the source language with respect to the so-called null subject parameter and to discourse information properties.
This experimental study is a work in progress on new information subjects in bilingual and L1 acq... more This experimental study is a work in progress on new information subjects in bilingual and L1 acquisition. The experimental design is based on the video test first used by Belletti and Leonini (2004) and Belletti, Bennati and Sorace (2007) in the domain of L2 acquisition of Italian, a null subject language, by speakers of non null subject languages. The original experimental design was re-designed by using plasticised cartoons of Mickey Mouse, and the same pragmatic conditions of the original video test were maintained. The contribution of this study is twofold: (i) to pinpoint different developmental stages with respect to answering strategies and new information subjects that emerge in bilingual and L1 acquisition, and (ii) to detect possible crosslinguistic influences between Finnish, a partial null subject language, and Italian, a null subject language.
The aim of the paper is twofold: in the theoretical part we review the main proposals on the synt... more The aim of the paper is twofold: in the theoretical part we review the main proposals on the syntactic encoding of locatives and we sketch a new formalization which we fully develop in related work (Bellucci, Dal Pozzo, Franco, Manzini, in preparation); in the experimental part novel data on the acquisition of locative case markers by L2 lowerintermediate Finnish speakers, native speakers of Italian is discussed. The language combination we have chosen may be revealing in more than one respect: in Finnish four locative cases (inessive, illative-the so-called internal casesand adessive and allativethe so-called external cases) broadly correspond to the Italian preposition a which can be used to express both stativity and directionality. We created a written translation task aimed at eliciting the locatives cases in the L2. Interestingly the L2 grammar is sensitive to the different properties of internal vs. external cases and stative vs. directional cases (non-native-like behaviour i...
This study aims at contributing to research on the comprehension of pronominal subjects by adding... more This study aims at contributing to research on the comprehension of pronominal subjects by adding novel evidence through an on-line experiment. A self-paced reading task designed for testing antecedent assignment with forward anaphora is used to compare processing of null and overt pronouns in fourteen native speakers (NS) and thirteen near native speakers (NNS) of Italian. Results are compared with data obtained through an off-line task (picture verification task) administered to the same group of experimental subjects. Findings confirm that residual difficulties at near-native level of proficiency still persist. Specifically, a discrepancy emerges between NS and NNS with respect to antecedent assignment in overt pronoun contexts. The contrast between off- and on-line processing data is particularly revealing in that it suggests that divergent patterns between the two populations might be attributed to competition for processing resources between languages rather than specific proc...
In this thesis we investigate various issues related to the Finnish noun phrase with the main goa... more In this thesis we investigate various issues related to the Finnish noun phrase with the main goal of describing the observed phenomenon in the framework of generative grammar. Hence, we assume, as often proposed in the literature (Abney 1987, Cinque 1994, Giusti 1993, 1996 and 2006, and many others), that the noun phrase has three main “layers”, represented in the projection in (1): (1) DP 3) Complementation Area Spec D’ D° AgrP 2) Inflectional Area Spec Agr’ Agr° NP 1) NP-shell Lexical Area In the Lexical Area the thematic relations are established and theta-roles assigned, in the Inflectional Area modifiers are merged in a hierarchical order and finally, the referential features of the noun phrase are evaluated in the Complementation Area (cf. Giusti 2007). The paper is organized as follows: in the first chapter we present the linear order of the noun and its modifiers and we make some parallelisms with the order found in clause. Starting from the evident observation that all nom...
The aim of the paper is twofold: in the theoretical part we review the main proposals on the synt... more The aim of the paper is twofold: in the theoretical part we review the main proposals on the syntactic encoding of locatives and we sketch a new formalization which we fully develop in related work (Bellucci, Dal Pozzo, Franco, Manzini, in preparation); in the experimental part novel data on the acquisition of locative case markers by L2 lower-intermediate Finnish speakers, native speakers of Italian is discussed. The language combination we have chosen may be revealing in more than one respect: in Finnish four locative cases (inessive, illative-the so-called internal cases- and adessive and allative- the so-called external cases) broadly correspond to the Italian preposition a which can be used to express both stativity and directionality. We created a written translation task aimed at eliciting the locatives cases in the L2. Interestingly the L2 grammar is sensitive to the different properties of internal vs. external cases and stative vs. directional cases (non-native-like behavi...
This paper investigates the rather complex syntax of possessive constructions in Finnish. The pos... more This paper investigates the rather complex syntax of possessive constructions in Finnish. The possessor in Finnish can be expressed either by a full genitive DP or by a pronoun (Finnish has no possessive adjectives). In the latter case, a possessive suffix can be inserted with interesting restrictions. On the basis of the distribution of the possessive suffix, it is possible to distinguish possessive pronouns in standard and colloquial Finnish and to claim that the latter behave like full DPs. The question of the nature of the possessive suffix is also addressed to conclude that it is parallel to the agreement suffix in Hungarian and is not a possessive clitic, despite some parallels with possessive clitics in Balkan languages.
The distribution of overt pronouns has been the focus of much interest in the last decades as it ... more The distribution of overt pronouns has been the focus of much interest in the last decades as it is considered a typical phenomenon of the syntax-discourse/pragmatics interface, a locus of variability in different kinds of language acquisition (bilingual, L2 advanced learners, SLI) and it has been investigated in null and non-null subject language. In the present paper we discuss the distribution of null and overt pronouns in bilingual language acquisition in Finnish (a partial null subject language) and Italian (a null subject language). Data has been collected through a storytelling task in Finnish and Italian. Results show some optionality in the use of pronominal forms but unexpectedly little overuse of overt pronouns is attested in the null subject language.
Dutch is typically known to allow scrambling. Finnish on the other hand has a flexible word order... more Dutch is typically known to allow scrambling. Finnish on the other hand has a flexible word order. Even though the two languages differ in many aspects and Finnish does not have scrambling in the sense of an alternation between an adverb and an object, we ...
Recent work on second language acquisition within the generative framework has pointed out interf... more Recent work on second language acquisition within the generative framework has pointed out interfaces (syntax-discourse, syntax-semantics, etc.) as a residual domain of vulnerability in L2. Rather than in core syntax, it is at the interface level that the divergence between native and non-native grammars has been shown to be more prominent. In this book the investigation of answering strategies and the focalization of new information subjects, which require access to the syntax-discourse interface, will be pursued. Data is collected through an oral elicitation task on Finnish and Italian, a rather unexplored language pair, in various stages of language development: advanced and intermediate L2 acquisition, L1 under L2 attrition, early bilingualism, child monolingual L1 development.
Dutch is typically known to allow scrambling. Finnish on the other hand has a flexible word order... more Dutch is typically known to allow scrambling. Finnish on the other hand has a flexible word order. Even though the two languages differ in many aspects and Finnish does not have scrambling in the sense of an alternation between an adverb and an object, we suggest that the relation between word order and interpretation observed in the two languages is similar. On the basis of new empirical data from Finnish, we show that in both Dutch and Finnish movement of the direct object from its base-position to a noncanonical position in the middle field is related to <em>discourse</em> <em>anaphoricity</em>.
3. Results. The most striking result prompted by the data analysis is the large significant effec... more 3. Results. The most striking result prompted by the data analysis is the large significant effect of tasks on article accuracy (see Graph 1). Specifically, the OPT is more problematic than the WPT for the L2 population with respect to controls. Furthermore, a large effect of ...
This experimental study is a work in progress on new information subjects in bilingual and L1 acq... more This experimental study is a work in progress on new information subjects in bilingual and L1 acquisition. The experimental design is based on the video test first used by Belletti and Leonini (2004) and Belletti, Bennati and Sorace (2007) in the domain of L2 acquisition of ...
The aim of this work is to present a comparative study between subject focalization in Brazilian ... more The aim of this work is to present a comparative study between subject focalization in Brazilian Portuguese (BP) and in Finnish. More specifically, we will be concerned with the strategies displayed by these languages to focalize subjects in context of new information ...
While previous work on postverbal subjects in Italian has shown that young children are sensitive... more While previous work on postverbal subjects in Italian has shown that young children are sensitive to the effects of argument structure and definiteness, little is known about the acquisition of postverbal subjects at the VP-periphery. In response, the present study investigated such subjects under new-information focus by monolingual Italian children (6;1 – 7;4). For this, we employed an elicitation task and a forced-choice task. The results indicated that the children use postverbal subjects at the VP-periphery felicitously, although they do not perform at ceiling. Unexpectedly, the results also suggested possible remnant difficulty with the definiteness effect. However, after comparison with adult data we argue that this is not a developmental issue and instead may suggest that our children were aware that the definiteness effect is not about definiteness per se.
In the present work we focus on institutional communication in a period of crisis. In particular ... more In the present work we focus on institutional communication in a period of crisis. In particular we are interested in the communications of the Italian and Finnish governments during the health emergency raised by the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyse and compare two press releases given by the Italian and Finnish Prime Ministers at the very beginning and at the end of the so-called first stage of the pandemic. The analysis aims at i) describing the effectiveness of the speeches applying six parameters that we previously identified as crucial for efficient communication, and ii) exploring the lexical choice of the Prime Ministers in relation to it.
In this paper we investigate the distribution of overt subject pronouns in the Italian of three d... more In this paper we investigate the distribution of overt subject pronouns in the Italian of three dubbed films. Previous studies have shown that audiovisual translations into Italian exhibit a certain amount of 'novel' solutions in language usage at interface levels due to interference from the source language. This paper focuses on one particular area of interference, i.e. the distribution of overt subject pronouns in pragmatically marked and unmarked contexts, which is observed in a corpus of two full-length films and an episode of a television series, all dubbed from Finnish into Italian. The results show that in dubbed Italian overt subject pronouns are also used in contexts in which they would not be expected. We identify four main categories of overuse of subject pronouns which are presented taking into account the properties of the source language with respect to the so-called null subject parameter and to discourse information properties.
This experimental study is a work in progress on new information subjects in bilingual and L1 acq... more This experimental study is a work in progress on new information subjects in bilingual and L1 acquisition. The experimental design is based on the video test first used by Belletti and Leonini (2004) and Belletti, Bennati and Sorace (2007) in the domain of L2 acquisition of Italian, a null subject language, by speakers of non null subject languages. The original experimental design was re-designed by using plasticised cartoons of Mickey Mouse, and the same pragmatic conditions of the original video test were maintained. The contribution of this study is twofold: (i) to pinpoint different developmental stages with respect to answering strategies and new information subjects that emerge in bilingual and L1 acquisition, and (ii) to detect possible crosslinguistic influences between Finnish, a partial null subject language, and Italian, a null subject language.
The aim of the paper is twofold: in the theoretical part we review the main proposals on the synt... more The aim of the paper is twofold: in the theoretical part we review the main proposals on the syntactic encoding of locatives and we sketch a new formalization which we fully develop in related work (Bellucci, Dal Pozzo, Franco, Manzini, in preparation); in the experimental part novel data on the acquisition of locative case markers by L2 lowerintermediate Finnish speakers, native speakers of Italian is discussed. The language combination we have chosen may be revealing in more than one respect: in Finnish four locative cases (inessive, illative-the so-called internal casesand adessive and allativethe so-called external cases) broadly correspond to the Italian preposition a which can be used to express both stativity and directionality. We created a written translation task aimed at eliciting the locatives cases in the L2. Interestingly the L2 grammar is sensitive to the different properties of internal vs. external cases and stative vs. directional cases (non-native-like behaviour i...
This study aims at contributing to research on the comprehension of pronominal subjects by adding... more This study aims at contributing to research on the comprehension of pronominal subjects by adding novel evidence through an on-line experiment. A self-paced reading task designed for testing antecedent assignment with forward anaphora is used to compare processing of null and overt pronouns in fourteen native speakers (NS) and thirteen near native speakers (NNS) of Italian. Results are compared with data obtained through an off-line task (picture verification task) administered to the same group of experimental subjects. Findings confirm that residual difficulties at near-native level of proficiency still persist. Specifically, a discrepancy emerges between NS and NNS with respect to antecedent assignment in overt pronoun contexts. The contrast between off- and on-line processing data is particularly revealing in that it suggests that divergent patterns between the two populations might be attributed to competition for processing resources between languages rather than specific proc...
In this thesis we investigate various issues related to the Finnish noun phrase with the main goa... more In this thesis we investigate various issues related to the Finnish noun phrase with the main goal of describing the observed phenomenon in the framework of generative grammar. Hence, we assume, as often proposed in the literature (Abney 1987, Cinque 1994, Giusti 1993, 1996 and 2006, and many others), that the noun phrase has three main “layers”, represented in the projection in (1): (1) DP 3) Complementation Area Spec D’ D° AgrP 2) Inflectional Area Spec Agr’ Agr° NP 1) NP-shell Lexical Area In the Lexical Area the thematic relations are established and theta-roles assigned, in the Inflectional Area modifiers are merged in a hierarchical order and finally, the referential features of the noun phrase are evaluated in the Complementation Area (cf. Giusti 2007). The paper is organized as follows: in the first chapter we present the linear order of the noun and its modifiers and we make some parallelisms with the order found in clause. Starting from the evident observation that all nom...
The aim of the paper is twofold: in the theoretical part we review the main proposals on the synt... more The aim of the paper is twofold: in the theoretical part we review the main proposals on the syntactic encoding of locatives and we sketch a new formalization which we fully develop in related work (Bellucci, Dal Pozzo, Franco, Manzini, in preparation); in the experimental part novel data on the acquisition of locative case markers by L2 lower-intermediate Finnish speakers, native speakers of Italian is discussed. The language combination we have chosen may be revealing in more than one respect: in Finnish four locative cases (inessive, illative-the so-called internal cases- and adessive and allative- the so-called external cases) broadly correspond to the Italian preposition a which can be used to express both stativity and directionality. We created a written translation task aimed at eliciting the locatives cases in the L2. Interestingly the L2 grammar is sensitive to the different properties of internal vs. external cases and stative vs. directional cases (non-native-like behavi...
This paper investigates the rather complex syntax of possessive constructions in Finnish. The pos... more This paper investigates the rather complex syntax of possessive constructions in Finnish. The possessor in Finnish can be expressed either by a full genitive DP or by a pronoun (Finnish has no possessive adjectives). In the latter case, a possessive suffix can be inserted with interesting restrictions. On the basis of the distribution of the possessive suffix, it is possible to distinguish possessive pronouns in standard and colloquial Finnish and to claim that the latter behave like full DPs. The question of the nature of the possessive suffix is also addressed to conclude that it is parallel to the agreement suffix in Hungarian and is not a possessive clitic, despite some parallels with possessive clitics in Balkan languages.
The distribution of overt pronouns has been the focus of much interest in the last decades as it ... more The distribution of overt pronouns has been the focus of much interest in the last decades as it is considered a typical phenomenon of the syntax-discourse/pragmatics interface, a locus of variability in different kinds of language acquisition (bilingual, L2 advanced learners, SLI) and it has been investigated in null and non-null subject language. In the present paper we discuss the distribution of null and overt pronouns in bilingual language acquisition in Finnish (a partial null subject language) and Italian (a null subject language). Data has been collected through a storytelling task in Finnish and Italian. Results show some optionality in the use of pronominal forms but unexpectedly little overuse of overt pronouns is attested in the null subject language.
Dutch is typically known to allow scrambling. Finnish on the other hand has a flexible word order... more Dutch is typically known to allow scrambling. Finnish on the other hand has a flexible word order. Even though the two languages differ in many aspects and Finnish does not have scrambling in the sense of an alternation between an adverb and an object, we ...
Recent work on second language acquisition within the generative framework has pointed out interf... more Recent work on second language acquisition within the generative framework has pointed out interfaces (syntax-discourse, syntax-semantics, etc.) as a residual domain of vulnerability in L2. Rather than in core syntax, it is at the interface level that the divergence between native and non-native grammars has been shown to be more prominent. In this book the investigation of answering strategies and the focalization of new information subjects, which require access to the syntax-discourse interface, will be pursued. Data is collected through an oral elicitation task on Finnish and Italian, a rather unexplored language pair, in various stages of language development: advanced and intermediate L2 acquisition, L1 under L2 attrition, early bilingualism, child monolingual L1 development.
Dutch is typically known to allow scrambling. Finnish on the other hand has a flexible word order... more Dutch is typically known to allow scrambling. Finnish on the other hand has a flexible word order. Even though the two languages differ in many aspects and Finnish does not have scrambling in the sense of an alternation between an adverb and an object, we suggest that the relation between word order and interpretation observed in the two languages is similar. On the basis of new empirical data from Finnish, we show that in both Dutch and Finnish movement of the direct object from its base-position to a noncanonical position in the middle field is related to <em>discourse</em> <em>anaphoricity</em>.
3. Results. The most striking result prompted by the data analysis is the large significant effec... more 3. Results. The most striking result prompted by the data analysis is the large significant effect of tasks on article accuracy (see Graph 1). Specifically, the OPT is more problematic than the WPT for the L2 population with respect to controls. Furthermore, a large effect of ...
This experimental study is a work in progress on new information subjects in bilingual and L1 acq... more This experimental study is a work in progress on new information subjects in bilingual and L1 acquisition. The experimental design is based on the video test first used by Belletti and Leonini (2004) and Belletti, Bennati and Sorace (2007) in the domain of L2 acquisition of ...
The aim of this work is to present a comparative study between subject focalization in Brazilian ... more The aim of this work is to present a comparative study between subject focalization in Brazilian Portuguese (BP) and in Finnish. More specifically, we will be concerned with the strategies displayed by these languages to focalize subjects in context of new information ...
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Papers by Lena Dal Pozzo