The project aims to account for patterns of variation in the processing of prominence structures. In particular, we investigate how German–Italian and German–English bilingual children ranging in age from 8 to 12 integrate morphosyntactic and discourse information during narrative reading, by using eye-tracking experiments. Bilinguals may differ from each other in their sensitivity to morphosyntactic or discourse information during discourse processing. Among the factors that contribute to this variation, we explore the role of cross-linguistic influence, differences in bilingual profiles in terms of language and literacy exposure, individual cognitive skills and bilinguals’ ability to share discourse strategies across their two languages.

See list of publications

Publications

To appear

• Andreou, Maria. To appear. Language and cognitive aspects of child bilingualism: Research observations and classroom applications. Inquiries in Language Learning. Peter Lang.
• Andreou, Maria, Jacopo Torregrossa & Christiane Bongartz. To appear. The use of null subjects by Greek-Italian bilingual children: Identifying cross-linguistic effects. In G. Fotiadou & I. Tsimpli (eds.), Individual differences in anaphora resolution: Language and cognitive effects. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
• Torregrossa, Jacopo & Christiane M. Bongartz. To appear. Activation of referents in the bilingual mind. In G. Fotiadou and I. Tsimpli (eds.), Individual differences in anaphora resolution: Language and cognitive effects. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

2021

• Torregrossa, Jacopo, Maria Andreou, Christiane Bongartz & Ianthi Maria Tsimpli. 2021. Bilingual acquisition of reference: The role of language experience, executive functions and cross-linguistic effects. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. 1–13.

2020

• Andreou, Maria, Jacopo Torregrossa & Christiane Bongartz. 2020. The sharing of reference strategies across two languages: The production and comprehension of referring expressions by Greek-Italian bilingual children. Discours 26. 
• Torregrossa, Jacopo, Maria Andreou & Christiane M Bongartz. 2020. Variation in the use and interpretation of null subjects: A view from Greek and Italian. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics 5(1): 95. 1–28. pdf

2019

• Torregrossa, Jacopo, Christiane Bongartz & Ianthi Maria Tsimpli. 2019. Bilingual reference production. A cognitive-computational account. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 9(4–5). Benjamins. 569-599.

2018

• Torregrossa, Jacopo. 2018. Distinguishing Focus and Contrast at PF: A view from Italian. In Marco García García & Melanie Uth (eds.), Focus Realization and Interpretation in Romance and beyond. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
• Torregrossa, Jacopo & Christiane Bongartz. 2018. Teasing apart the effects of dominance, transfer and processing in reference production by German- Italian bilingual adolescents. Languages 3(3). pdf

2017

• Andreou, Maria & Ianthi Tsimpli. 2017. Aspectual distinctions in the narratives of bilingual children. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 55(3). 305-324. Special Issue: Tense, Aspect and Modality in L2. Guest Editors: K. McManus, N. Vanek, L. Roberts & P. Leclercq. pdf
• Bongartz, Christiane & Jacopo Torregrossa. 2017. The effects of balanced biliteracy on Greek-German bilingual children's secondary discourse ability. Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. 1-16. pdf
• Torregrossa, Jacopo. 2017. The role of executive functions in the acquisition of reference: The production of demonstrative pronouns by German monolingual children. In Language Acquisition at the Interfaces: Proceedings of GALA (Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition) 2015, 318-331. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pdf

Event organization

• Organization of the Winter School "Biliterate development in diverse contexts" held from 13th-14th December 2018.
• Organization of the workshop "Ways of Reference in Romance Languages" held from 27th-28th September 2018, joint work with C02 and B04.