After the Null Subject Parameter: Acquisition of the Null-Overt Contrast in Spanish

• Published in: LingBuzz
• Main Authors: sythe, Hannah, Greeson, Dan, Schmitt, Cristina Cristina
• Format: Paper
• Language: English
• Published: Tromso Universitetet i Tromsoe 01.08.2019
• Subjects: Children; Comprehension; Native language acquisition; Person; Pro drop parameter; Pronouns; Spanish as a second language learning; Spanish language; Spontaneous speech

In many so-called consistent null subject languages, null and overt subject pronouns have contrasting referential preferences: null subjects tend to maintain reference to the preceding subject while overt pronominal subjects do not. We propose that children acquire this contrast by initially restricting their attention to 1st and 2nd person pronouns, whose reference is simpler to infer compared to 3rd person pronouns. Spontaneous production from Mexican Spanish shows that (i) the null/overt contrast is in principle acquirable from 1st and 2nd person subject pronouns in naturalistic input; (ii) children’s production of 1st and 2nd person subjects is conditioned by this contrast, and (iii) the contrast is generalized to the 3rd person slightly later in development. A pronoun resolution task shows that children use the null/overt contrast in comprehension at the same age that it becomes apparent in production.