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THE CLAUSE-INITIAL POSITION IN L2 GERMAN DECLARATIVES : Transfer of Information Structure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2008

Ute Bohnacker  and
Christina Rosén
Ute Bohnacker*
Affiliation:
Uppsala University, Lund University
Christina Rosén
Affiliation:
Växjö University
*
Ute Bohnacker, Uppsala University, Department of Linguistics and Philology, Box 635, SE-75126 Uppsala, Sweden; e-mail: ute.bohnacker@lingfil.uu.se
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Abstract

This article investigates the information structure of verb-second (V2) declaratives in Swedish, German, and nonnative German. Even though almost any type of element can occur in the so-called prefield, the clause-initial preverbal position of V2 declaratives, we have found language-specific patterns in native-speaker corpora: The frequencies of prefield constituent types differ substantially between German and Swedish, and Swedish postpones new (rhematic) information and instead fills the prefield with given (thematic) elements and elements of no or low informational value (e.g., expletives) to a far greater extent than German. We compare Swedish learners of German to native controls matched for age and genre (Bohnacker, 2005, 2006; Rosén, 2006). These learners master the syntactic properties of V2 but start their sentences in nonnative ways. They overapply the Swedish principle of rheme later in their second language German, indicating first language (L1) transfer at the interface of syntax and information structure, especially for structures that are frequent in the L1.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 30 , Issue 4 , December 2008 , pp. 511 - 538
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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