Transfer and typological proximity in the context of L2 processing
Författare
Summary, in English
In this article, the issue of cross-linguistic influence in second language acquisition is examined from a processing perspective. Applying Processability Theory as the theoretical framework we claim that second language (L2) learners can only produce forms they are able to process.We thus argue that the first language (L1) influence on the L2 is developmentally moderated. Data were collected from German L2 learners with Swedish as their L1. Twenty informants participated in the study, 10 in their first year of German (13 years of age) and 10 in their second year of German (14 years of age). Both languages involved are typologically very close but not mutually intelligible. The results show that Swedish learners of German do not transfer the verb-second structure from their L1 to the L2 even though this structure is identical in both languages.Instead they start out with canonical word order and subsequently produce an intermediate structure (adv NPsubj V X), which is ungrammatical in the L1 and the L2. These observations support the idea of a developmentally moderated transfer. The results clearly contradict the predictions from the 'full transfer/full access' hypothesis (Schwartz and Sprouse, 1994; 1996).
Avdelning/ar
Publiceringsår
2002
Språk
Engelska
Sidor
250-273
Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie
Second Language Research
Volym
18
Issue
3
Länkar
Dokumenttyp
Artikel i tidskrift
Förlag
SAGE Publications
Ämne
- General Language Studies and Linguistics
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt
- ISSN: 0267-6583