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- Title
Syntax and Discourse in Near-Native French: Clefts and Focus.
- Authors
Donaldson, Bryan
- Abstract
This study examines aspects of the syntax-discourse interface in near-native French. Two cleft structures- c'est clefts and avoir clefts-are examined in experimental and spontaneous conversational data from 10 adult Anglophone learners of French and ten native speakers of French. C'est clefts mark focus, and avoir clefts introduce new discourse referents. Although previous research on the syntax-discourse interface has revealed residual difficulties in near-native speakers, the near-natives in the present study evinced nativelike behavior on a range of measures, a finding that suggests complete acquisition of aspects of the syntax-discourse interface.
- Subjects
COMMUNICATIVE competence; FRENCH language grammar; SYNTAX (Grammar); FRENCH versification; SENTENCES (Grammar)
- Publication
Language Learning, 2012, Vol 62, Issue 3, p902
- ISSN
0023-8333
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1467-9922.2012.00701.x