Crosslinguistic Influence in L3A; An investigation of L3 English acquisition among North Sámi-Norwegian bilinguals

Abstract

This thesis investigates cross-linguistic influence (CLI) in L3 acquisition among North Sámi-Norwegian bilinguals in comparison to Norwegian monolingual controls. The linguistic phenomena of investigation include subject-verb agreement and verb placement. The main overarching inquiry of this study is to determine if North Sámi-Norwegian bilinguals acquire English (as an L3) in the same fashion as monolingual Norwegian learners do (as an L2). Previous studies have already looked at the acquisition of both subject-verb agreement and verb placement by L1 Norwegians in L2 English and have discovered both provide difficulties for Norwegians. Difficulty for the L1 Norwegians arise due to lack of overt subject-verb agreement in Norwegian and strict V2 rules with regard to verb placement. Therefore, the thesis’ main objective is to discover if North Sámi-Norwegians bilinguals also find these properties difficult or will they benefit from the presence of subject-verb agreement and non-V2 word order in North Sámi? An Acceptability Judgement Task was administered to 15 North Sámi-Norwegian bilinguals and 19 monolingual Norwegian controls. The results revealed that the North Sámi-Norwegian bilinguals do not acquire these properties in the same fashion as their L1 Norwegian counterparts. While the bilinguals did significantly better on subject-verb agreement, due to facilitative influence from North Sámi, the L1 Norwegians did better on verb placement.