The influence of finiteness and lightness on verb placement in L2 German

Comparing child and adult learners

Dados Bibliográficos

ID11655960
AutoresSarah Schimke (0000-0002-5678-8146, University of Münster, autor correspondente), Christine Dimroth (0000-0003-0483-7839, University of Münster)
Ano2017
Volume34
Fascículo2
Páginas229-256
Data de publicação2017-09-03
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSecond language Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0267-6583 • E-ISSN: 1477-0326
EditoraSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0267658317723071
OpenAlexW2753708745
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas45
Referências citadas31

In this study, verb placement with respect to negation is investigated in elicited production and elicited sentence imitation data collected with child second language (L2) learners of German. These data are compared to published data from adult L2 learners, which were collected with the same elicitation materials and were re-analysed for the current study. Results show that similar developmental stages can be observed in child and adult learners. In particular, contrary to previous findings, child L2 learners who had not yet fully acquired finiteness (subject–verb agreement) showed a preference for placing lexical verbs to the right of negation, rather than in a raised position to the left of negation. This pattern was observed for nonfinite and finite lexical verbs, but not for finite auxiliaries, suggesting that children, like adults, may pass through a phase where lightness influences verb placement preferences more strongly than does finiteness

German · Imitation · Linguistics · Negation · Sentence · Verb · Language Development and Disorders · Psychology · Reading and Literacy Development · Second Language Acquisition and Learning · Social Psychology