The realization of information focus in monolingual and bilingual native Spanish

Abstract

The strategies used to signal information focus — the non-presupposed part of a sentence — in Spanish are under debate. The literature suggests that focus must appear rightmost; however, empirical evidence shows that speakers also realize focus in-situ. Moreover, there is limited research investigating the effects of language variety or knowledge of another language on focus marking. We address these questions via a paced elicited production task, testing speakers who learned Spanish naturalistically in infancy, including two groups of monolinguals and two groups of Spanish/English bilinguals: (a) Spanish natives who learned English after childhood, and (b) early bilinguals exposed to English in early childhood (heritage speakers). Confirming previous empirical studies, results show that all participant groups choose a similar range of focus-marking strategies, vastly preferring in-situ marking with rightmost marking used rarely. Results challenge both theoretical accounts of Spanish focus realization and expectations of special vulnerability at the syntax-discourse interface for bilinguals.

Multilingual Competence Influences Answering Strategies in Italian–German Speakers

“…As mentioned above, at least one further strategy is attested cross-linguistically and that does not imply the activation of the low vP-peripheral Focus position, namely the focalization of the subject in preverbal position through prosodic prominence. The strategy is attested in Germanic languages, such as, e.g., English and German, but also in Romance languages such as Brazilian Portuguese ( Dal Pozzo and Guesser, 2010 ) and, as recently discussed, in South American varieties of Spanish ( Gabriel, 2010 ; Hoot, 2012 ; Leal et al, 2017 ), as well as in Bulgarian ( Genevska-Hanke, 2017 ; see footnote 2). The strategy consists in having the subject in preverbal position, yielding the SV linear order, and in attributing a characteristic prosodic prominence to the preverbal NIS.…”

Object focus marking in Spanish: An investigation using three tasks

“…These methods, which have been frequently used in the study of other languages, have shown that speakers can and do process contextual appropriateness in real time (Kaiser & Trueswell 2004;Slioussar 2011;Weskott et al 2011). Moreover, while researchers have suggested that methodological choices are relevant (Gabriel 2010;Hoot 2016;Leal, Destruel & Hoot 2018;Uth & García García 2018), few studies systematically examine the effects of task characteristics. In our investigation, we follow in the footsteps of other researchers examining methodological choices (e.g., Grosjean 1998;Plonsky 2015;Gudmestad & Edmonds 2018;Uth & García García 2018;Escandell Vidal & Leonetti 2019), asking whether task characteristics should affect the conclusions we draw from them.…”

“…Similarly, Roggia (2011) found that subject-final orders were produced about 60% of the time for unaccusative verbs (canonically VS in Spanish) with no difference for subject focus, whereas for unergative verbs (canonically SV), production of VS increased only slightly (to about 50%) under subject focus. With transitive verbs, Gabriel (2010) and Leal, Destruel, and Hoot (2018) found that when participants marked subject focus using full sentences including the transitive verb's direct object, they produced subject focus overwhelmingly in canonical position. Kim (2016) found the same was true when the prompt led participants to replace the object with a clitic pronoun.…”

“…In sum, when Spanish speakers judge focus in tasks that include canonical order options, they typically disfavor alternatives where the focused subject is in final position (i.e., VOS; Hoot 2012; Muntendam 2013; Hoot 2016). Furthermore, speakers rarely mark subject focus via VOS order in production tasks (Gabriel 2010;Vanrell & Fernández Soriano 2013;Feldhausen & Vanrell 2014;Feldhausen & Vanrell 2015;Kim 2016;Leal, Destruel & Hoot 2018;Vanrell & Fernández Soriano 2018). In contrast, word-order alterations within the VP-e.g., moving a non-focal PP to create VPPO order so that a focused, nonfinal direct object is in final position-are more acceptable (Leal Méndez & Slabakova 2011;Hoot 2012;Heidinger 2013;Hoot 2016) and more likely to be produced (Gabriel 2010;Feldhausen & Vanrell 2014;Feldhausen & Vanrell 2015;Heidinger 2015;Vanrell & Fernández Soriano 2018).…”

“…Recent investigations, however, present a sharp contrast to this picture. They show evidence that Spanish speakers of multiple varieties reliably prefer in-situ realizations when it comes to subject focus, as exemplified in (2) (Gabriel 2010;Hoot 2016;Leal, Destruel & Hoot 2018). 2Context: Who read a novel?…”