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In this work we analyze the anaphoric devices employed in topic continuity and topic shift in the semi-spontaneous narrations of three groups of speakers: Italian Natives, Greek Natives and near-native second language speakers (L2ers) of Italian with Greek as a first language (L1). According to some recent literature, near-native speakers of a null subject language over-use overt pronouns even when their L1 is also a null subject language. It is still unclear whether this over-use is tied to differences in the languages involved (e.g. Italian and Spanish, Filiaci et al. 2014) and hence might be the result of cross-linguistic influence. Our data reveal that in Italian pro has a more specific function than in Greek in signaling topic continuity. The characteristic of pro in Italian is preserved in the L2ers productions. We also found that L2ers over-use overt pronouns, particularly in topic continuity, despite the similarity of their two languages in this respect. Finally, we single out an additional factor that influences speakers’ choice of anaphoric devices, i.e. the number and kind of active referents, proving evidence that all speakers’ groups employ overt pronouns particularly when there are two active animate referents that differ for gender and/or number, and L2ers significantly more than the other two groups. Our findings thus show that micro-variation in the use of anaphoric devices is attested among null subject languages, while the over-use of overt pronouns by L2ers stems from their difficulty in establishing topicality under higher degrees of cognitive load.

This study examined how native and near-native speakers of Hexagonal French make reference to future events in a corpus of informal conversations. A concept-oriented analysis reveals that no fewer than 13 different finite verb forms appeared in future-time contexts. A qualitative analysis of the use of the present in future-time contexts in the two portions of the corpus points to similarities in the native-speaker and near-native-speaker use. This analysis contributes to the understanding of future-time expression in Hexagonal French and to discussions concerning near-nativeness in second language acquisition.

This study aims to advance the understanding of sociolinguistic competence among near-native speakers and to further knowledge about the acquisition of variable structures. We conduct a quantitative analysis of variable future-time expression in informal conversations between near-native and native speakers of French. In addition to examining linguistic constraints that have been investigated in previous research, we build on prior work by introducing a new factor that enables us to consider the role that formality of the variants plays in the use of variable future-time expression. We conclude by comparing these new findings to those for the same dataset and other variable structures (namely, negation and interrogatives, Donaldson, 2016, 2017) and by advocating for more research that consists of multiple, complementary analyses of the same dataset., Les objectifs de cette étude sont (a) d’apporter de nouvelles données relatives à la compétence sociolinguistique parmi des locuteurs non natifs qui ont un niveau très avancé dans leur langue étrangère et (b) de contribuer à nos connaissances sur l’acquisition des structures variables. Nous proposons une analyse quantitative de l’expression du futur dans des conversations informelles entre un locuteur très avancé et un locuteur natif du français. Afin de comprendre ce cas de variation, nous faisons appel à des facteurs linguistiques qui ont été identifiés dans des recherches précédentes, et nous proposons un nouveau facteur qui nous permet d’étudier le rôle joué par la formalité des variantes dans l’expression du futur. Pour conclure, nous comparons les résultats de cette analyse aux recherches précédentes qui ont examiné d’autres structures variables dans le même corpus (notamment, la négation et les interrogatives, Donaldson, 2016, 2017) et nous soulignons l’intérêt et l’importance de faire de multiples analyses complémentaires d’un seul corpus.