L2 English Influence on Acceptance of Grammatical and Ungrammatical Constructions in L1 Dutch

Abstract

This study aims to discover whether Dutch-English bilinguals have a different acceptance rate of grammatical constructions and ungrammatical constructions involving preposition stranding in their L1 Dutch compared to Dutch monolinguals. Four different preposition stranding constructions were used: pronouns, Full-NP questions, topicalization, and passives. Participants were asked to respond to a questionnaire where they had to determine whether grammatical constructions and ungrammatical preposition stranding constructions were grammatical to them. A between subjects test was done and determined that bilinguals have a significantly higher acceptability rate of grammatical constructions in Dutch. This is in contrast with Balcom (2003) who determined that bilinguals have a lower acceptability rate of grammatical sentences in their native language compared to monolinguals. The four different stranding constructions were assessed differently by the two groups which suggests there is a degree of influence in reverse transfer. More research is needed to make firm conclusions.