On the L2 acquisition of a semi-pro-drop language

Abstract

This study presents an experiment on the L2 acquisition of the Overt Pronoun Constraint (OPC), a universal principle that refers to the fact that null subject languages do not allow for an overt pronoun to be bound by a quantified antecedent (e.g. *Ninguémi acha que elei é estúpido). The objective of the experiment was to test the knowledge of this principle by native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese (BP) and speakers of English and English-Spanish bilinguals, L2 and L3 learners of BP, respectively. The central question of this research is whether native BP speakers are more likely to observe the principle or not, but also whether L2 and L3 learners of BP would behave like native speakers, like speakers of a typical null subject language or according to their native language. Assuming Universal Bilingualism by Roeper (1999) and using an experimental task based on Kanno (1997) and Rothman and Iverson (2007 a-c), it was found that native BP controls did not behave like typical null subject language speakers with respect to the OPC. Moreover, the L2 and L3 learners of BP behaved similarly to the controls, independently of their previously acquired languages.