The processing of intrasentential anaphoric subject pronouns in L2 Spanish

Abstract

This paper examines whether L2 learners of Spanish can attain native-like interpretive and parsing patterns in intrasentential subject anaphor resolution, and the extent to which these patterns are modulated by L1 transfer. Adult advanced L2 learners of Spanish with different L1s (Moroccan Arabic, a null-subject language, and English, a non-null subject language) completed an experiment utilizing online (the moving window paradigm) and offline (answers to comprehension questions) techniques. Both Arabic and English learners of Spanish performed in a native-like way at the interpretive and parsing levels. These patterns suggest that L1 transfer plays no crucial role when interpreting and processing intrasentential anaphoric subjects at least at the advanced level.