Anaphora resolution in L1 Serbian by trainee translators from L2 English

In this paper we report on the results of an experimental study into the resolution of intra-sentential anaphora in Serbian by two native speaker groups, English–Serbian trainee translators and a control group of non-translators. The aim was to explore whether the translators’ internal linguistic system undergoes changes similar to L1 attrition due to extended exposure to the L2. We employed a picture selection task that required participants to read sentences containing null and overt subject pronouns, which either followed or preceded the candidate antecedents, and to match each sentence to one of three pictures; the pictures showed the antecedent as the subject, the object or an extra-linguistic referent. The translators did not select the subject as the overt pronoun antecedent more often than the non-translators, leading to the conclusion that at the training stage there is no evidence of incipient L1 attrition in translators.