КОРПУСНАЯ ЛИНГВИСТИКА-2008
| Конференция | Темы | Организационный комитет | Контакты | English/Русский |
| Конференция |
| Темы |
| Организационный комитет |
| Контакты |
| English/Русский |
Kuehnast M.
From the perspective of theoretical linguistics, research on the properties of null anaphora - null pronouns and different types of ellipsis - has gained importance in the recent years, as null anaphors lack physical form but still have meaning. Interest in the acquisition of null anaphora was initially driven by questions about the universal and language-specific properties of the syntax-semantics interface. Later on, issues concerning the function of null pronouns in the information packaging came to the fore.
In the present paper we argue that research concentrated on the way children come to obey the syntactic well-formedness restrictions of subject drop is a necessary but not a sufficient basis for hypotheses concerning the acquisition process of null pronouns as discourse- cohesive devices. We maintain that the coherence function of intersentential pronominal anaphora and particularly of null subject pronouns can be understood in greater depth only if the communicative demands in the production of connected discourse are taken into account. In this respect, annotated narrative corpora appear to be the most suitable source of statistically reliable and ecologically valid data.
This claim is substantiated by contrasting experimental psycholinguistic findings with corpus-based evidence on the acquisition of null pronouns in Bulgarian. The function of the 3rd person null anaphor as a means of establishing and maintaining a referent as a discourse theme is discussed against the typological properties of Bulgarian as a strong pro-drop language with discourse-configurationally determined word order and morphologically encoded topic-focus distinctions.
Назад
Acqusition of Null Anaphora in Bulgarian – a Coprus-Based Study
The investigation of anaphoric relations is of pivotal relevance for the understanding of textual meaning. Anaphoric reference is on the one hand one of the main means of establishing textual coherence; on the other hand, anaphora are elusive linguistic devices as most of them, e.g. pronominal anaphora, are lexically underspecified and thus insufficient for reference determination.From the perspective of theoretical linguistics, research on the properties of null anaphora - null pronouns and different types of ellipsis - has gained importance in the recent years, as null anaphors lack physical form but still have meaning. Interest in the acquisition of null anaphora was initially driven by questions about the universal and language-specific properties of the syntax-semantics interface. Later on, issues concerning the function of null pronouns in the information packaging came to the fore.
In the present paper we argue that research concentrated on the way children come to obey the syntactic well-formedness restrictions of subject drop is a necessary but not a sufficient basis for hypotheses concerning the acquisition process of null pronouns as discourse- cohesive devices. We maintain that the coherence function of intersentential pronominal anaphora and particularly of null subject pronouns can be understood in greater depth only if the communicative demands in the production of connected discourse are taken into account. In this respect, annotated narrative corpora appear to be the most suitable source of statistically reliable and ecologically valid data.
This claim is substantiated by contrasting experimental psycholinguistic findings with corpus-based evidence on the acquisition of null pronouns in Bulgarian. The function of the 3rd person null anaphor as a means of establishing and maintaining a referent as a discourse theme is discussed against the typological properties of Bulgarian as a strong pro-drop language with discourse-configurationally determined word order and morphologically encoded topic-focus distinctions.
Назад