Abstract
AbstractHigh-proficient Swedish users of L2 French and Spanish were compared with native speakers of French, Spanish and Swedish with regard to how the syntactic peripheries in natural colloquial speech are structured. Two different though interrelated aspects were included: thus a cross-linguistic analysis comparing the three native speaker groups is combined with an analysis addressing the question of the upper limits of L2 acquisition. All left peripheral (LP) and right peripheral (RP) constituents of a corpus of 110,759 words were classified in a taxonomy relying both on syntactic and functional-pragmatic criteria. The cross-linguistic analysis showed that French and Spanish L1 speakers produced significantly longer LP sequences than the Swedish L1 speakers, who, in turn, put conspicuously more weight on the RP. Significant differences between the three languages were also found with regard to several LP and RP constituent categories. The L2 acquisition-oriented analysis showed that with few exceptions the high-proficient L2 users behaved like L1 users. Although a few interlanguage-related phenomena could be observed, no instances of any clear transfer from the speaker’s L1 appeared in either L2 speaker group.
Highlights
IntroductionWe assume that understanding the nature of syntactic peripheries is crucial for describing and understanding how languages structure information
1.1 AimThe aim of the present study is to investigate the organization and use of the left and right periphery of utterances in French, Spanish and Swedish spontaneous dialog, and their acquisition by highly proficient Swedish speakers of L2 French and Spanish.We assume that understanding the nature of syntactic peripheries is crucial for describing and understanding how languages structure information
We know from our own teaching experience that idiomatic command of peripheral structures constitutes an important challenge for Scandinavian learners of French and Spanish L2 at lower or even intermediate levels of proficiency
Summary
We assume that understanding the nature of syntactic peripheries is crucial for describing and understanding how languages structure information. The differences between Scandinavian and Romance languages in this respect have hardly been addressed by earlier scholarly work, one exception being Larsson-Ringqvist (2010). Notwithstanding, anyone with experience from teaching Romance languages in Scandinavia would agree that this is a domain in which speakers of Scandinavian and Romance languages behave differently. This is why we have looked at L2 production of peripheral structures. We know from our own teaching experience that idiomatic command of peripheral structures constitutes an important challenge for Scandinavian learners of French and Spanish L2 at lower or even intermediate levels of proficiency. What has so far remained less well known is to what extent this difficulty subsists even at advanced or very advanced levels.
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