Cross-linguistic influence in the acquisition of relative clauses by Norwegian learners of English

This paper reports on an exploratory study of cross-linguistic influence in the acquisition relative clauses by young Norwegian learners English, comparing L1 and L2 English material from TRAWL (Tracking Written Learner Language) Corpus to GiG (Growth Grammar) Corpus. Previous this domain have usually involved language pairs that very different relativization strategies. investigates whether similarities between clause systems may lead more subtle effects choice relativizer, type head nominal, syntactic function relativized item, extent embedded use special constructions such as existentials clefts. Although is limited, found traces system signalling area worth further investigation. The struggled with who which, but used that/zero a similar way their peers. group also had slightly higher frequencies belonging clefts, where item stemmed clause. These results are consistent usage-based theory second acquisition, assumed transfer features when they enough for them make identification.