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Chapter 4. L2 development of - ing clauses

A longitudinal study of Norwegian learners
  • Hildegunn Dirdal
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Beyond Concordance Lines
This chapter is in the book Beyond Concordance Lines

Abstract

Although -ing clauses are frequent in English, their acquisition has not received much attention, and there is a lack of longitudinal studies and detailed explorations of cross-linguistic influence. This longitudinal case study of five young Norwegian students reveals a developmental sequence for the syntactic roles of -ing clauses: complements of aspectual verbs > complements of other verbs and prepositions > bare adjuncts and postmodifiers of nouns > subjects. The sequence may arise from a combination of frequencies in the input and grammatical selection. Syntactic restrictions on Norwegian present participle clauses are not mirrored in the acquisition of -ing clauses, indicating that the students do not make an interlingual identification. Cross-linguistic influence is evident mainly in late acquisition and infrequent use of -ing clauses.

Abstract

Although -ing clauses are frequent in English, their acquisition has not received much attention, and there is a lack of longitudinal studies and detailed explorations of cross-linguistic influence. This longitudinal case study of five young Norwegian students reveals a developmental sequence for the syntactic roles of -ing clauses: complements of aspectual verbs > complements of other verbs and prepositions > bare adjuncts and postmodifiers of nouns > subjects. The sequence may arise from a combination of frequencies in the input and grammatical selection. Syntactic restrictions on Norwegian present participle clauses are not mirrored in the acquisition of -ing clauses, indicating that the students do not make an interlingual identification. Cross-linguistic influence is evident mainly in late acquisition and infrequent use of -ing clauses.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents vii
  3. Acknowledgements ix
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Chapter 1. Research in data-driven learning 9
  6. Chapter 2. Data-driven learning, theories of learning and second language acquisition 35
  7. Chapter 3. Looking back on 25 years of TaLC 57
  8. Chapter 4. L2 development of - ing clauses 75
  9. Chapter 5. Collocations in learner English 97
  10. Chapter 6. Profiling learners through pragmatically and error annotated corpora 121
  11. Chapter 7. Exploring the impact of data-driven learning in extensive reading 149
  12. Chapter 8. Data-driven learning 177
  13. Chapter 9. Scoledit 207
  14. Chapter 10. CEFR-J × 28 231
  15. Index 253
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.102.04dir

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents vii
  3. Acknowledgements ix
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Chapter 1. Research in data-driven learning 9
  6. Chapter 2. Data-driven learning, theories of learning and second language acquisition 35
  7. Chapter 3. Looking back on 25 years of TaLC 57
  8. Chapter 4. L2 development of - ing clauses 75
  9. Chapter 5. Collocations in learner English 97
  10. Chapter 6. Profiling learners through pragmatically and error annotated corpora 121
  11. Chapter 7. Exploring the impact of data-driven learning in extensive reading 149
  12. Chapter 8. Data-driven learning 177
  13. Chapter 9. Scoledit 207
  14. Chapter 10. CEFR-J × 28 231
  15. Index 253
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