Syntax-pragmatics interface: brazilian-portuguese L2 acquisition of english

• Ano de defesa: 2007
• Autor(a) principal: Pacheco, Silvana Zardo
• Orientador(a): Menuzzi, Sergio de Moura
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul; Porto Alegre
• Palavras-chave em Português: GRAMÁTICA; LINGUÍSTICA APLICADA; AQUISIÇÃO DA SEGUNDA LÍNGUA; PRAGMÁTICA; SINTAXE
• Link de acesso: http://hdl.handle.net/10923/4197

This dissertation has proposed that certain syntactic errors in an L2 learner’s grammar may be more accurately explained in terms of a lack of knowledge about pragmatics and the syntax-pragmatic interface rather than as syntactic deficits per se. In order to contribute to this discussion, an investigation of the L2 acquisition of the grammatical properties of English subjects and objects by Brazilian Portuguese (BP) learners of L2 English was conducted. It was tested whether the L1 discoursepragmatic factors associated with the syntax of these grammatical positions, particularly where deletion of a subject or an object is pragmatically controlled in the L1 (BP) and not in the L2 (English), can lead learners to accept ungrammatical L2 sentences. Subjects were classified as being at one of three levels of linguistic proficiency: Basic (n = 11); Intermediate (n = 15); Advanced (n = 14). L2 Learners were administered grammaticality judgment, and interpretation tasks, presented in two conditions: + and – pragmatic context. Learners´ linguistic development in the L2 and their syntactic and pragmatic knowledge are investigated through regression analysis and the employment of dummies as explanatory variables. The results confirm the hypothesis that the L2 acquisition of the interpretive interface between syntax and pragmatics has a developmental trajectory that extends beyond the acquisition of either of these two individual components. Evidence indicates that (1) learners know certain structural-rule-governed subtleties of the L2 grammar, suggesting that UG is available for them, (2) and that their performance is hindered at points where the pragmatic properties of the subjects and objects in the L1 do not match the L2 pragmatic properties, most likely because interpretive aspects have to be learned, i. e., there is no UG guidance. It is argued that the Strong Continuity model provides an appropriate theoretical framework to account for the mismatches between L2 learners´ syntactic and pragmatic knowledge.