Cross Linguistic Transfer in Word Order: Evidence from L1 Forgetting and L2 Acquisition

The purpose of the present study was to bring together the evidence on possible cross-linguistic transfer in word order from two different perspectives: a transfer as an apparent obstacle in second language acquisition, and a transfer as a cause of attrition of the native language. The relationship between the same two languages in a contact situation was investigated. Since the majority of studies on cross-linguistic influence were done in either of these two fields, there was a challenge to incorporate two studies in the framework of the same research and not to damage its integrity. The paper is structured as follows. After an account of the literature on cross-linguistic influence as it is reflected in both fields, recent findings on word order transfer are reported. A brief comparative analysis of word order in Russian and English is followed by the results of the longitudinal case study. Then findings from the experimental cross-sectional study are presented.