On <strong>the</strong> bil<strong>in</strong>gual acquisition of Italian and Venetan dialects:A focus on subject and object clitic pronounsAnna Card<strong>in</strong>aletti and Anna FabrisUniversità Ca’ Foscari Venezia1. In this talk, we present data from <strong>the</strong> bil<strong>in</strong>gual first language acquisition of an Italian childacquir<strong>in</strong>g Italian and a variety of Venetan, <strong>the</strong> Rosà dialect. His spontaneous productions from <strong>the</strong>age of 2;0.17 to <strong>the</strong> age of 3;00 will be compared to <strong>the</strong> monol<strong>in</strong>gual first language acquisition of achild acquir<strong>in</strong>g ano<strong>the</strong>r variety of Venetan, <strong>the</strong> Cassola dialect (age 2;8-3;4), and children acquir<strong>in</strong>gItalian, data com<strong>in</strong>g from corpora collected by our research group and from previous literature. Wediscuss both code-mix<strong>in</strong>g and <strong>the</strong> syntactic emergence of subject and object pronouns.2. We first show how <strong>the</strong> two languages develop <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> bil<strong>in</strong>gual child <strong>in</strong> terms of <strong>the</strong> MLU valuesof monol<strong>in</strong>gual (both Italian and dialect) and mixed utterances. Until <strong>the</strong> age of 2;4.19, <strong>the</strong> dialect is<strong>the</strong> dom<strong>in</strong>ant language <strong>in</strong> both types of utterances. Afterwards, Italian becomes <strong>the</strong> dom<strong>in</strong>antlanguage. The bil<strong>in</strong>gual child’s code-mix<strong>in</strong>g data are analysed follow<strong>in</strong>g Bernard<strong>in</strong>i and Schlyter’s(2004) Ivy Hypo<strong>the</strong>sis. Most of <strong>the</strong> examples of code-mix<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> corpus can be accounted forunder this hypo<strong>the</strong>sis; some unexpected examples (ma<strong>in</strong>ly concern<strong>in</strong>g unaccusatives verbs) will bepresented as well.3. A comparison between <strong>the</strong> bil<strong>in</strong>gual child and <strong>the</strong> monol<strong>in</strong>gual children with respect to <strong>the</strong>acquisition of object clitics is undertaken.In <strong>the</strong> bil<strong>in</strong>gual child, object clitic pronouns emerge roughly at <strong>the</strong> same time <strong>in</strong> Italian and <strong>the</strong>dialect, and omissions stop at <strong>the</strong> same time <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> two languages (at 2;3.14; see age 2;4 <strong>in</strong> Müller etal. 2006). In <strong>the</strong> monol<strong>in</strong>gual Cassola dialect child, object clitics are omitted at a much higher rateand longer. They are still omitted 50% of <strong>the</strong> time at <strong>the</strong> age of 3, and omissions cont<strong>in</strong>ue until <strong>the</strong>last record<strong>in</strong>g. These data might be due to <strong>in</strong>dividual differences between <strong>the</strong> two children, as found<strong>in</strong> previous works and o<strong>the</strong>r languages. They might however also be attributed to <strong>the</strong> beneficialeffect, on <strong>the</strong> bil<strong>in</strong>gual child, of exposure of two close languages with clitic pronouns, Italian and<strong>the</strong> dialect.Similar tendencies characterize <strong>the</strong> acquisition of Italian and dialectal object clitics. Compar<strong>in</strong>gproclisis to enclisis, proclisis is <strong>in</strong> general more largely employed than enclisis; omissions are alsomore frequent <strong>in</strong> proclisis than <strong>in</strong> enclisis, although some opposite pattern is also found. The dataare compared with previous studies on clitics acquisition <strong>in</strong> Italian and o<strong>the</strong>r Romance languages(Schaeffer 2000; Wexler et al. 2004; Müller et al. 2006, Costa et al. 2008, Capr<strong>in</strong> and Guasti 2009,Tuller et al. 2011 among many o<strong>the</strong>rs).4. S<strong>in</strong>ce <strong>the</strong> Venetan Dialects display subject clitics, this paper also reports on <strong>the</strong> acquisition ofsubject clitics <strong>in</strong> nor<strong>the</strong>rn Italian dialects. We discuss <strong>the</strong> acquisition of subject clitics <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong>different contexts <strong>in</strong> which <strong>the</strong>y occur (declarative, <strong>in</strong>terrogative, negative).Subject and object clitics emerge roughly at <strong>the</strong> same time (<strong>the</strong>y are already present <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> firstrecord<strong>in</strong>g of <strong>the</strong> bil<strong>in</strong>gual child, at 2;0.17), subject clitics are however omitted at a much higher ratethan object clitics. In declarative contexts, omissions of subject clitics tend to be more numerousthan <strong>the</strong>ir productions, and <strong>the</strong>y are still found <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> last record<strong>in</strong>g of <strong>the</strong> monol<strong>in</strong>gual Cassoladialect child (at 3;4).Subject omissions could be analysed as <strong>the</strong> <strong>in</strong>fluence of Italian on <strong>the</strong> acquisition of <strong>the</strong> dialect.There are however data that speak aga<strong>in</strong>st this hypo<strong>the</strong>sis. Compar<strong>in</strong>g our data with o<strong>the</strong>r childlanguages which also present two classes of subject pronouns, tonic and deficient, we observe that<strong>the</strong> acquisition of <strong>the</strong> Venetan dialects is similar to <strong>the</strong> acquisition of Swahili (Deen 2012) anddiffers from <strong>the</strong> acquisition of French (see Hamann and Belletti 2008 for an overview). If frequentstructures <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>in</strong>put were acquired earlier than rare structures, frequency considerations shouldpredict <strong>the</strong> acquisition of subject clitics before object clitics. The prediction seems to be correct for1
French, but it is not correct for Veneto dialects and Swahili. The analysis will take <strong>in</strong>to account <strong>the</strong>difference between weak and clitic pronouns (Card<strong>in</strong>aletti and Starke 1999; Hamann et al. 1996,Hamann and Belletti 2008), and <strong>the</strong> partial pro-drop status of nor<strong>the</strong>rn Italian dialects (Card<strong>in</strong>alettiand Repetti 2010). In Child Venetan (as <strong>in</strong> Swahili), pronom<strong>in</strong>al subjects are true clitics, as <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong>adult language, while <strong>the</strong>y are weak pronouns <strong>in</strong> French. Null subjects <strong>in</strong> child Venetan (a non fullpro-drop language like adult Venetan) must be analysed as root null subjects as <strong>in</strong> Rizzi (1993/94),(2000). Support for this hypo<strong>the</strong>sis comes from <strong>the</strong> observation that subject clitics are less omitted<strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>terrogative sentences than <strong>in</strong> declarative sentences, and more <strong>in</strong> negative than <strong>in</strong> positivedeclaratives.5. In conclusion, converg<strong>in</strong>g evidence from two close languages seems to speed up <strong>the</strong> acquisitionof object clitics. When <strong>the</strong> two languages differ, however, as <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> subject system, children succeed<strong>in</strong> keep<strong>in</strong>g apart <strong>the</strong> properties of <strong>the</strong> two languages, not analys<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> dialect as a full pro-droplanguage under <strong>the</strong> <strong>in</strong>fluence of Italian, but assum<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> truncation option available <strong>in</strong> non-prodroplanguages.ReferencesBernard<strong>in</strong>i P. and S. Schlyter (2004) Grow<strong>in</strong>g syntactic structure and code-mix<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> weakerlanguage: The Ivy Hypo<strong>the</strong>sis, Bil<strong>in</strong>gualism: Language and Cognition 7, 49-67.Capr<strong>in</strong> C. and M.T. Guasti (2009) The acquisition of Morpho-Syntax <strong>in</strong> Italian: a cross-sectionalstudy. Applied Psychol<strong>in</strong>guistics 30: 23-52.Card<strong>in</strong>aletti A. and L. Repetti (2010) Proclitic vs enclitic pronouns <strong>in</strong> nor<strong>the</strong>rn Italian dialects and<strong>the</strong> null-subject parameter, <strong>in</strong> R. D’Alessandro, A. Ledgeway, I. Roberts (eds.), SyntacticVariation: The Dialects of Italy, Cambridge University Press, 119-134.Card<strong>in</strong>aletti A. and M. Starke (1999) "The typology of structural deficiency. A case study of <strong>the</strong>three classes of pronouns," <strong>in</strong> H. van Riemsdijk (ed.), Clitics <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> Languages of Europe, Moutonde Gruyter, Berl<strong>in</strong>, 145-233.Costa J., M. Lobo, J. Carmona, C. Silva (2008) Clitic omission <strong>in</strong> European Portuguese:correlation with null objects?. In A. Gavarró & M. J. Freitas (eds). Proceed<strong>in</strong>gs of GALA2007, Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publish<strong>in</strong>g; 133-143.Deen K. (2012), The acquisition of subject and object clitics <strong>in</strong> Swahili, <strong>in</strong> M. P. Larranaga and P.Guijarro-Fuentes (eds.) Pronouns and Clitics <strong>in</strong> Early Language, De Gruyter Mouton, 237-256.Hamann C., L. Rizzi, U. Frauenfelder (1996) The acquisition of subject and object clitics <strong>in</strong> French,<strong>in</strong> H. Clahsen (ed.), <strong>Generative</strong> Approaches to Language Acquisition, Benjam<strong>in</strong>s, 309-334.Hamann C. and A. Belletti (2008) Developmental patterns <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> acquisition of complement cliticpronouns: Compar<strong>in</strong>g different acquisition modes with an emphasis on French, Rivista digrammatica generativa 31, 39-78.Müller N., K. Schmitz, K. Cantone, T. Kupisch (2006), Null arguments <strong>in</strong> monol<strong>in</strong>gual children. Acomparison of Italian and French, <strong>in</strong> V. Torrens and L. Escobar (eds.), The Acquisition of Syntax <strong>in</strong>Romance Languages, Benjam<strong>in</strong>s, 69-93.Rizzi L. (1994) Early null subjects and root null subjects, <strong>in</strong> T. Hoekstra and B.D. Schwartz (eds.),Language acquisition studies <strong>in</strong> generative grammar, Benjam<strong>in</strong>s.Rizzi L. (2000) Remarks on early null subjects, <strong>in</strong> M.-A. Friedemann and L. Rizzi (eds.) TheAcquisition of Syntax, Longman, 269-292.Schaeffer J. (2000) The acquisition of direct object scrambl<strong>in</strong>g and clitic placement: syntax andpragmatics, Amsterdam: Benjam<strong>in</strong>sTuller L. et al. (2011), Clitic pronoun production as a measure of atypical language development <strong>in</strong>French, L<strong>in</strong>gua 121.3Wexler K., A. Gavarró and V. Torrens (2004) Feature check<strong>in</strong>g and object clitic omission <strong>in</strong> childSpanish and Catalan’, R. Bok-Bennema, B. Hollebrandse, B. Kampers-Manhe, P. Sleeman (eds.),Romance Language and L<strong>in</strong>guistic Theory 2002, Benjam<strong>in</strong>s, 253–270.2
- Page 1 and 2: GLOW Newsletter #70, Spring 2013Edi
- Page 3 and 4: INTRODUCTIONWelcome to the 70 th GL
- Page 5: Welcome to GLOW 36, Lund!The 36th G
- Page 8 and 9: REIMBURSEMENT AND WAIVERSThe regist
- Page 10 and 11: STATISTICS BY COUNTRYCountry Author
- Page 12 and 13: 15:45-16:00 Coffee break16:00-17:00
- Page 14 and 15: 14:00-15:00 Adam Albright (MIT) and
- Page 16 and 17: 17:00-17:30 Anna Maria Di Sciullo (
- Page 18 and 19: 16.10-16.50 Peter Svenonius (Univer
- Page 20 and 21: GLOW 36 WORKSHOP PROGRAM IV:Acquisi
- Page 22 and 23: The impossible chaos: When the mind
- Page 24 and 25: 17. Friederici, A. D., Trends Cogn.
- Page 26 and 27: Second, tests replicated from Bruen
- Page 28 and 29: clusters is reported to be preferre
- Page 30 and 31: occur (cf. figure 1). Similar perfo
- Page 32 and 33: argument that raises to pre-verbal
- Page 34 and 35: Timothy Bazalgette University of
- Page 36 and 37: . I hurt not this knee now (Emma 2;
- Page 38 and 39: Rajesh Bhatt & Stefan Keine(Univers
- Page 40 and 41: SIZE MATTERS: ON DIACHRONIC STABILI
- Page 42 and 43: ON THE ‘MAFIOSO EFFECT’ IN GRAM
- Page 44 and 45: The absence of coreferential subjec
- Page 46 and 47: PROSPECTS FOR A COMPARATIVE BIOLING
- Page 48 and 49: A multi-step algorithm for serial o
- Page 50 and 51: Velar/coronal asymmetry in phonemic
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- Page 56 and 57: Colorful spleeny ideas speak furiou
- Page 58 and 59: A neoparametric approach to variati
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- Page 76 and 77: Repairing Final-Over-Final Constrai
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- Page 94 and 95: Some Maladaptive Traits of Natural
- Page 96 and 97: Constraints on Concept FormationDan
- Page 98 and 99: More on strategies of relativizatio
- Page 100 and 101: ReferencesBayer, J. 1984. COMP in B
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Improper movement and improper agre
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Importantly, while there are plausi
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This hypothesis makes two predictio
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(3) a. Það finnst alltaf þremur
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(2) Watashi-wa hudan hougaku -wa /*
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However when the VP (or IP) is elid
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More specifically, this work reflec
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modality, or ii) see phonology as m
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(I) FWHA The wh-word shenme ‘what
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1The historical reality of biolingu
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Rita Manzini, FirenzeVariation and
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Non-counterfactual past subjunctive
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THE GRAMMAR OF THE ESSENTIAL INDEXI
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Motivating head movement: The case
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Limits on Noun-suppletionBeata Mosk
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Unbounded Successive-Cyclic Rightwa
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Same, different, other, and the his
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Selectivity in L3 transfer: effects
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Anaphoric dependencies in real time
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Constraining Local Dislocation dial
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A Dual-Source Analysis of GappingDa
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[9] S. Repp. ¬ (A& B). Gapping, ne
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of Paths into P path and P place is
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Deriving the Functional HierarchyGi
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Reflexivity without reflexivesEric
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Reuland, E. (2001). Primitives of b
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on v, one associated with uϕ and t
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Merge when applied to the SM interf
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1 SachsThe Semantics of Hindi Multi
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Covert without overt: QR for moveme
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Morpho-syntactic transfer in L3 acq
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one where goals receive a theta-rel
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follow Harris in assuming a ranked
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changing instances of nodes 7 and 8
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Sam Steddy, steddy@mit.eduMore irre
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Fleshing out this model further, I
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(5) Raman i [ CP taan {i,∗j}Raman
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properties with Appl (introduces an
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econstruct to position A then we ca
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(5) Kutik=i ez guret-a.dog=OBL.M 1S
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Building on Bhatt’s (2005) analys
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Underlying (derived from ON) /pp, t
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out, as shown in (3) (that the DP i
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Word order and definiteness in the
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Visser’s Generalization and the c
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the key factors. The combination of
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Parasitic Gaps Licensed by Elided S
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Stages of grammaticalization of the