Microvariation in the resolution of pronominal subjects in Romance : European Portuguese vs. Italian
Fiéis, Alexandra (Universidade Nova de Lisboa)
Madeira, Ana (Universidade Nova de Lisboa)
Teixeira, Joana (Universidade do Porto)

Date:	2022
Abstract:	The present study investigates how adult native speakers of two null subject Romance languages, European Portuguese (EP) and Italian, interpret null and overt pronominal subjects in intrasentential contexts. Participants were 30 speakers of EP and 30 of Italian. Each language group was administered two multiple-choice tasks (speeded and untimed), which crossed the following variables: 'animacy of the matrix object' ([+ human] vs. [- human]) and 'type of pronominal embedded subject' (overt vs. null). Our results show that there is microvariation in the resolution of overt pronominal subjects in EP and in Italian: the position of the antecedent is the most relevant factor in EP, whereas, in Italian, the animacy of the antecedent is the preponderant factor. Moreover, our results reveal that the resolution of null subjects is an area of microvariation: the bias for subject antecedents is weaker in Italian than in EP. Possible reasons for the observed microvariation are discussed in detail.
Note:	Acknowledgements. This work was supported by national funding through FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology - within the strategic project of the Linguistics Research Centre of NOVA University of Lisbon (CLUNL) UID/LIN/03213/2019, and the strategic project of the Linguistics Research Centre of the University of Porto (CLUP) UIDB/00022/2020.
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Microvariation ; Anaphora resolution ; Animacy ; Null subject ; Romance languages
Published in:	Isogloss, Vol. 8 Núm. 5 (2022) , p. 1-20 (Articles) , ISSN 2385-4138

Adreça original: https://revistes.uab.cat/isogloss/article/view/v8-n5-fieis-madeira-teixeira
DOI: 10.5565/rev/isogloss.220

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