Under pressure: Exploring the impact of cognitive factors on clitics placement in L2 Slovak

Abstract

Abstract This article investigates word order of clitics in L2 Slovak and the possible impact of cognitive factors on it. Based on data from the learner corpus, the article makes a first attempt at a more thorough inquiry of ordering patterns in the interlanguage of non-native speakers of Slovak to assess whether cognitive principles of contiguity, relevance, and verb–object bonding possibly have an effect on preferential clitics placement. As proxies for cognitive effects on word order, linguistic and (psycho)linguistic predictors are used, such as proficiency level to consider the possible developmental patterns of word order competence and L1 language group of speakers. The dataset includes 1,051 sentences with the annotated erroneous placement of clitics from learner corpus errkorp-1.0. The data are further annotated manually with respect to relevant variables (type of clitic component, syntactic environment in which this component occurs, expected and actual distance of clitic component from matrix verb in terms of linear dependency segments and syntactic words, actual and expected position of clitic component on right or left periphery of the matrix verb, and proficiency level according to CEFR and L1 language group of speakers). Correspondence analysis based on corpus data demonstrates the relevance of proficiency levels and the irrelevance of the L1 speaking group for preferential orders in the interlanguage. It is thus concluded that the interference hypothesis has little explanatory power for clitic placement in Slovak as L2. It is shown, however, that preferential ordering patterns in the interlanguage can be explained as being regulated by cognitive principles that operate irrespectively of L1.