Swedish noun-phrase structure in Russian-speaking learners : An explorative study of L1 influence and input-frequency effects
(2021) In Journal of the European Second Language Association 5(1). p.16-29- Abstract
Articles pose a particular challenge to second-language learners whose first language does not have them. Variability in article production in these learners is often explained in terms of first-language influence, but there are also suggestions that frequency-biased regularities in the target language itself might play a role. While most second-language research on articles has focused on English, a language with a relatively simple article system, the present study explores first-language influence and input-frequency effects by focusing on Swedish. Swedish expresses definiteness using a complex noun-phrase structure including several free-standing and bound morphemes, some relatively frequent in input, others less frequent. An... (More)
Articles pose a particular challenge to second-language learners whose first language does not have them. Variability in article production in these learners is often explained in terms of first-language influence, but there are also suggestions that frequency-biased regularities in the target language itself might play a role. While most second-language research on articles has focused on English, a language with a relatively simple article system, the present study explores first-language influence and input-frequency effects by focusing on Swedish. Swedish expresses definiteness using a complex noun-phrase structure including several free-standing and bound morphemes, some relatively frequent in input, others less frequent. An oral-production task elicited adjectivally modified and non-modified noun phrases in indefinite and definite contexts from 23 foreign-language learners of Swedish who were native speakers of Russian, an inflectional language without articles. The analysis revealed that the learners were more likely to supply high-frequency morphemes than low-frequency ones. Furthermore, while the learners were equally likely to supply bound and free-standing morphemes, only their suppliance of free-standing morphemes was negatively affected by adjectival modification; their suppliance of bound morphemes was not. While the role of cross-linguistic influence should not be neglected, these findings suggest that probabilistic regularities in the linguistic input are a key factor in second-language acquisition of functional morphology.
(Less)
- author
- Agebjörn, Anders LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2021
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- adjectival modification, articles, functional morphology, second language acquisition, the Competition Model
- in
- Journal of the European Second Language Association
- volume
- 5
- issue
- 1
- pages
- 14 pages
- publisher
- White Rose University Press
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105022737820
- ISSN
- 2399-9101
- DOI
- 10.22599/jesla.70
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 5be30ecb-09ab-4fe4-a789-7a45490eb7fc
- date added to LUP
- 2026-02-16 15:43:27
- date last changed
- 2026-02-16 15:43:52
@article{5be30ecb-09ab-4fe4-a789-7a45490eb7fc,
abstract = {{<p>Articles pose a particular challenge to second-language learners whose first language does not have them. Variability in article production in these learners is often explained in terms of first-language influence, but there are also suggestions that frequency-biased regularities in the target language itself might play a role. While most second-language research on articles has focused on English, a language with a relatively simple article system, the present study explores first-language influence and input-frequency effects by focusing on Swedish. Swedish expresses definiteness using a complex noun-phrase structure including several free-standing and bound morphemes, some relatively frequent in input, others less frequent. An oral-production task elicited adjectivally modified and non-modified noun phrases in indefinite and definite contexts from 23 foreign-language learners of Swedish who were native speakers of Russian, an inflectional language without articles. The analysis revealed that the learners were more likely to supply high-frequency morphemes than low-frequency ones. Furthermore, while the learners were equally likely to supply bound and free-standing morphemes, only their suppliance of free-standing morphemes was negatively affected by adjectival modification; their suppliance of bound morphemes was not. While the role of cross-linguistic influence should not be neglected, these findings suggest that probabilistic regularities in the linguistic input are a key factor in second-language acquisition of functional morphology.</p>}},
author = {{Agebjörn, Anders}},
issn = {{2399-9101}},
keywords = {{adjectival modification; articles; functional morphology; second language acquisition; the Competition Model}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{1}},
pages = {{16--29}},
publisher = {{White Rose University Press}},
series = {{Journal of the European Second Language Association}},
title = {{Swedish noun-phrase structure in Russian-speaking learners : An explorative study of L1 influence and input-frequency effects}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.22599/jesla.70}},
doi = {{10.22599/jesla.70}},
volume = {{5}},
year = {{2021}},
}