Clitics and Determiners in L2 Greek

This paper aims to investigate the properties of nominal elements in bilingual speakers of Turkish and Russian learning Greek as a second language. Specifically, the data examined include the use of determiners in definite and indefinite DPs and pronominal (object) clitics. Primarily, the study seeks to identify the (abstract) morphological features which show differential development in the L2 grammar. The ‘uneven’ pattern revealed helps to shed light on the question of ultimate attainment, particularly in view of the fact that the L2ers who participated in the study have been exposed to the language in its natural context and had no prior knowledge of Greek. Individual variation found among the L2 learners although superficially problematic for a UG-based theory of language development, is, at the same time, interesting in that the pattern of differential development of formal features is consistent among learners and the variation attested is one of degree. Furthermore, the differences found between the formal features examined raise interesting implications with regard to the possibilities of ‘morphological misanalysis’ in L2 grammars. In this respect, the question of mapping abstract formal features onto morpho(phono)logical matrices is narrowed down to a subset of features that show ‘deviant’ L2 behaviour.