CROSS-LINGUISTIC INFLUENCE IN LI LANGUAGE ATTRITION AND SIMULTANEOUS ACQUISITION: EVIDENCE FROM ITALIAN/ TURKISH BILINGUALS

RLA. Revista de Lingüística Teórica y Aplicada Concepción (Chile), 59 (2), II Sem. 2021, pp. 63-80. ISSN 0033-698X (impresa) ISSN 0718-4883 (on-line) https://doi.org/10.29393/RLA59-11CLAP10011 CROSS-LINGUISTIC INFLUENCE IN L1 LANGUAGE ATTRITION AND SIMULTANEOUS ACQUISITION: EVIDENCE FROM ITALIAN/ TURKISH BILINGUALS1 LA INFLUENCIA CROSS-LINGÜÍSTICA EN LA ATRICIÓN DE LA L1 Y EN LA ADQUISICIÓN SIMULTÁNEA: EVIDENCIA DE BILINGÜES ITALIANOS / TURCOS ANNA LIA PROIETTI ERGÜN Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey Orcid: 0000-0002-1544-0135 ABSTRACT The present study reports data from a 40-item acceptability judgment task in Italian on the interpretation of backward anaphora in complex sentences in which three groups participated. The groups included bilingual Italian native speakers highly proficient in Turkish as a second language (L2), and Turkish and Italian simultaneous bilingual (2L1) children and monolingual native Italian speakers as a control group. In the 40-item acceptability judgment task in Italian, they were asked the degree of acceptability of sentences introduced by short stories suggesting coreference or disjoint reading of the overt or null pronoun. It was assumed that Italian and Turkish languages do not differ with respect to the antecedent biases of null and overt subject pronouns in the contexts under investigation, except for anaphoric pronoun “kendi” that when it is used as the thirdperson singular or plural, always expressing anaphoric references with the subject in the matrix sentence. The findings revealed a significant difference in the monolingual group regarding the null pronoun when preceded by a quantifier. This is discussed as evidence for the cross-linguistic influence at the syntax-discourse interface in 2L1 acquisition in children and in L1 attrition in language with similar parametric settings and for the fact that quality and quantity of input in the native or minority language can significantly diminish the effect. Keywords: cross-linguistic influence, early bilingualism, attrition, Turkish, Italian. 1 Este estudio forma parte de un proyecto de recerca “l’ Italiano como lengua de herencia en Turquía” de la Universidad Técnica Yildiz en Estambul. Otros artículos del proyecto disponible en https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346638831_Crosslinguistic_Interference_in_Simultaneous_Acquisition_of_Turkish_and_Italian. 63 RLA. Revista de Lingüística Teórica y Aplicada, 59 (2), II Sem. 2021 RESUMEN En este estudio se presentan los datos obtenidos en una tarea de juicio de aceptabilidad de 40 ítems en italiano sobre la interpretación de la anáfora en oraciones complejas en la que participaron tres grupos. Los grupos estaban formados por hablantes nativos bilingües italianos altamente competentes en turco como segunda lengua (L2), niños bilingües simultáneos (2L1) turcos e italianos y hablantes nativos monolingües de italiano como grupo de control. En la tarea de juicio de aceptabilidad de 40 ítems en italiano, se les preguntó el grado de aceptabilidad de oraciones introducidas por historias cortas que sugerían la correferencia o la lectura disjunta del pronombre abierto o nulo. Se supuso que las lenguas italiana y turca no difieren con respecto a la interpretación de la referencia de los pronombres sujetos nulos y abiertos en el contexto de la investigación, a excepción del pronombre anafórico “kendi”, que cuando se usa como tercera persona del singular o plural, siempre expresa referencias anafóricas al sujeto de la oración matriz. Los hallazgos revelaron una diferencia significativa en el grupo monolingüe con respecto al pronombre nulo cuando está precedido por un cuantificador. Esto se señala como evidencia de la influencia lingüística en la interfaz discurso-sintaxis en la adquisición de 2L1 en niños y L1 atrición en lenguas con configuraciones paramétricas similares y además del hecho que la calidad y la cantidad de input en el idioma nativo o minoritario pueden disminuir el efecto significativamente. Palabras clave: influencia cross-lingüística, bilingüismo temprano, atrición, turco, italiano. Recibido: 06/09/2020. Aceptado: 11/11/2021. 1. INTRODUCTION I n the past years, several studies that have investigated different bilingual groups (L2 learners, 2L1, attriters, and heritage language speakers) have assessed the effects of cross-linguistic influence on bilinguals’ language production and processing (Müller and Hulk, 2001; Rothman and Iverson, 2013; Serratrice et al., 2012; Sorace, 2011, 2016; Tsimpli et al. 2004; Liceras et al., 2008; Liceras et al., 2012: Howell, 2002). It has been proposed that structures at the syntax-pragmatic interface may be more vulnerable to cross-linguistic influence, more difficult to acquire and master completely (Chamorro and Sorace 2019; Sorace, 2011, 2016; Argyri and Sorace, 2007). Many of the studies focusing on syntax-pragmatic interface were conducted on the acquisition or attrition in bilingual learners, in whom two languages differ in parametric choices; these studies concluded that the difficulty in mastering the structures at the interface is due to underspecification and cross-linguistic influence (Lozano, 2006a, 2006b; Tsimpli, 2007; Tsimpli et al., 2004; Zobl and Liceras, 1994; Wilson, Sorace, Keller, 2009; Platzack, 1999; Maxwell and Delaney, 2004; Malakoff and Kenji, 1991; Işever, 2003). The proposal is that if a language 64 Cross-Linguistic influence in L1 language attrition and simultaneous acquisition: evidence from... / Anna Proietti Ergün has a particular interface condition that is specified in L2 speakers, it becomes underspecified when this condition is absent in L1. However, studies investigating language combinations with similar parametric conditions have observed analogous difficulties in acquiring discourse constraints (Bini, 1993; Margaza and Bel, 2006; Roberts, Gullberg and Indefrey, 2008; Belletti, 2001, 2004; Bortolini et al., 1972; Sorace et al., 2009; Underhill, 1972; Pinto, 1997). There are other studies revealing that structures at the interface can be successfully and completely acquired by L2 speakers (Donaldson, 2011, 2012; Ivanov, 2012; Iverson, Kempchinsky and Rothman, 2008). These data indicate that vulnerability at the interface is not determined only by cross-linguistic influence and underspecification. Therefore, there is the need to consider some other possible factors to explain this interface optionality in bilinguals. Promising research has indicated that the processing cost of inhibiting one of the languages of bilingual speakers, can be the reason of the difficulties in mastering structures at the interface (Chamorro and Sorace, 2019; Sorace, 2016). Chamorro and colleagues (2015), while investigating the reversibility of language attrition, collected data from three groups of Spanish speakers: a group of Spanish who learned English as L2 and have been residing in the UK for at least 5 years, a group that has been recently re-exposed t (...truncated)