Acquiring distributional patterns in a closely related second language : Referent introduction, maintenance and prefield constituents in Dutch and Swedish

This paper presents an explorative study of informal written narratives and oral picture descriptions in the native language as well as in the second language (L2) of six intermediate/advanced Dutch L1 learners of Swedish. Data from six Swedish L1 native controls, performing the same tasks as the learners, were also collected. Quantifications forthe following aspects of information structure were made for the transcribed oral descriptions: 1) reference introduction, including occurrences of spatial/existential constructions, 2) reference maintenance per type and finally 3) elements in the pref... Mehr ...