This DA_L2 adult_readme.txt file was generated on 2025-09-01 by Raquel Fernández Fuertes (Universidad de Valladolid) & Silvia Sánchez Calderón (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia).

INDEX OF THE BILINGUAL ACQUISITION DATA: DATIVE ALTERNATION-DA L2 ADULT DATASET 

1. GENERAL INFORMATION
1.1. Title of dataset
1.2. Author information
1.2.1. PI and co-PI
1.2.2. Lab
1.2.3  People involved in the data collection and the tasks design
1.3. Objectives
1.4. Funding sources
1.5. Citing information
2. ACCESS INFORMATION
2.1. Licenses or restrictions
2.2. Publications
3. METHODOLOGICAL INFORMATION
3.1. The participants
3.2. The experimental task: an Acceptability Judgment Task
3.3. Data extraction procedure
3.4. Data classification procedure: variables
4. DATA
4.1. Database
4.2. Last update
5. RELATED DATASETS

1. GENERAL INFORMATION

1.1. Title of dataset: Bilingual acquisition data: Dative Alternation_DA-L2 adult

1.2. Author Information

1.2.1. PI and co-PI:

	Name: Raquel Fernández Fuertes
	Institution: University of Valladolid (UVa)
	Address: Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Paseo del Cauce s/n 47011, Valladolid (Spain)
	Email: raquelff@uva.es

	Name: Silvia Sánchez Calderón
	Institution: National University of Distance Education (UNED)
	Address: Facultad de Filología, Paseo Senda del Rey 7 28040, Madrid (Spain)
	Email: ssanchez@flog.uned.es

1.2.2. Lab:

        Name of the lab: UVALAL (University of Valladolid Language Acquisition Lab)
        Institution: University of Valladolid
        Address: https://uvalal.uva.es
        Email: gir.uvalal@uva.es

1.2.3. People involved in the data collection and the tasks design

      The online and the offline data were designed, collected and codified by Raquel Fernández Fuertes and Silvia Sánchez Calderón.

1.3. Objectives

      This dataset is the result of the research carried out by Silvia Sánchez Calderón (UNED) and Raquel Fernández Fuertes (UVa) in the frame of the Research Group UVALAL (University of Valladolid Language Acquisition Lab, https://uvalal.uva.es/) whose Principal Investigator is Raquel Fernández Fuertes. In this project, the research is conducted on the second language (L2) acquisition of English Dative Alternation (DA) constructions by adult learners whose first language (L1) is Spanish. The results are compared to a control group of L1 English adults. An Acceptability Judgment Task (AJT) was designed for both groups to address grammaticality, sentence structure and word order of the two English DA structures. 

      The two DA structures under analysis involve, on the one hand, prepositional to-datives that alternate as Double Object Constructions (DOCs) (1) and, on the other hand, prepositional for-datives that alternate as DOCs (2). The main aim of this project is to explore the role played by the L2 English learners' L1 in their sensitivity towards the two syntactic variants, with a particular emphasis on the potential crosslinguistic influence effects (or lack thereof) from Spanish into English and the Universal Grammar (UG) effect on their acquisition. 

(1)	a. You gave the key to her cousin					[to-dative]
	b. You gave her cousin the key						[DOC]

(2) 	a. You booked the holiday for Sarah					[for-dative]
	b. You booked Sarah the holiday						[DOC]


1.4. Funding sources

- 2022: Convocatoria de ayudas complementarias a la investigación para el profesorado de la Facultad de Filología. UNED. 
- 2022: Convocatoria de ayudas complementarias para el fomento de la movilidad e internacionalización del profesorado de la Facultad de Filología. UNED. 
- 2018-2022: Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) [PGC2018-097693-B-I00], Linguistic competence indicators in heritage and non-native languages: linguistic, psycholinguistic and social aspects of English-Spanish bilingualism, PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: R. Fernández Fuertes (University of Valladolid, Spain).
- 2017-2019: Regional Government of Castile and León (Spain) and ERDF [VA009P17], Aspectos de la dimensión internacional del contacto de lenguas: diagnósticos de la competencia lingüística bilingüe inglés-español, PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: R. Fernández Fuertes (University of Valladolid, Spain).

1.5. Citing information

      Publications using this dataset (or any part of it) should cite this dataset as follows:

	Fernández Fuertes, R. and S. Sánchez Calderón. Under review. Does the L1 shape the acquisition of the L2? English dative alternation in the data 	of L1 Spanish speakers.


2. ACCESS INFORMATION

2.1. Licenses or restrictions

       This dataset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.en

2.2. Publications

	A partial or total access to information contained in the database can be found at the UVALAL webpage (publications section, 	http://uvalal.uva.es/index.php/results/publications/)

3. METHODOLOGICAL INFORMATION

3.1 The participants

	The methodology implemented in this study includes data from an experimental group of L2 English adult learners (n = 89) who acquired Spanish as their L1 since birth and at home. They learned English mainly at school and were grouped in three proficiency levels after they completed the Oxford Quick Placement Test, namely, elementary level A1-A2 (n = 17), intermediate level B1-B2 (n = 52) and advanced level C1-C2 (n = 20). The proficiency levels conform to the ones established by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (Council of Europe 2001). The control group (n = 76) entails adults who acquired English as their L1 since birth and at home. All the participants completed an informed consent form following the UNED Research Ethics Board approval (10-SISH-FILG-2025) and a Language Background Questionnaire (LBQ). 

3.2 The experimental task: an Acceptability Judgment Task

	For both groups, the AJT includes 100 items that the participants had to judge using a 1 to 4 Likert scale format for which 1 corresponds to "totally unacceptable" and 4 equals "totally acceptable".The experimental constructions, that is, to/for-datives and DOCs, consist of 40 items with 8 structures, 4 of which are grammatical and the other 4 are ungrammatical. Each condition has 5 examples, except for the ungrammatical DA conditions for which 10 examples are included. The fillers involve grammatical and ungrammatical monotransitive structures and copula verbs with an adjunct. Four practice items were also integrated in the AJT, namely, two noun-noun (N-N) compounds with a copula verb and two intransitive constructions.  
	The grammatical experimental English DA structures cover 20 items per condition. Each condition is codified as grammatical prepositional to-datives (TO_G, items 1 to 5), as in (3a), grammatical prepositional for-datives (FOR_G, items 6 to 10), as in (3b), and their respective grammatical DOCs that alternate as to-datives (TO_DOC_G, items 11 to 15), as in (4a), and as for-datives (FOR_DOC_G, items 16 to 20), as in (4b). 


(3) 	a. He gave a book to Mary			[grammatical to-dative]
	b. He bought a book for Mary			[grammatical for-dative]
(4) 	a. He gave Mary a book				[grammatical DOC that alternates as to-dative]
  	b. He bought Mary a book			[grammatical DOC that alternates as for-dative]

		
	The ungrammatical DA experimental items (n = 20) exhibit a constituent order violation as well as the overt realization of the prepositions (to and for) in each condition. These violations are grammatical in Spanish DA, the participants' L1. More specifically, ungrammatical to/for-datives and their respective ungrammatical alternating DOCs are classified as one single condition as TO_U (items 21 to 30), as in (5). This contrasts with the ungrammatical condition focused on for-datives and their corresponding alternating DOCs that is codified as FOR_U (items 31 to 40), as in (6).

(5)	*I denied to George the reality			[ungrammatical to-dative that alternates as DOC]
(6)	*We found for Lauren the key			[ungrammatical for-dative that alternates as DOC]


	The grammatical conditions for fillers encompass monotransitive structures (7) and copula verbs with an adjunct (8). The ungrammatical fillers constitute a word order violation, as illustrated in (9) and (10).


(7)	I wanted the ice-cream				[grammatical monotransitive]
(8)	I was in the park				[grammatical copula verb with an adjunct]

(9)	*I the answer knew				[ungrammatical monotransitive]
(10)	*I in the UK was				[ungrammatical copula verb with an adjunct]


	In the case of the experimental group, the experimental task was hosted online in Gorilla Experiment Builder (https://gorilla.sc/; Anwyl-Irvine, Massonnié, Flitton, Kirkham and Evershed 2020). The data derived from the control group were collected offline at Ulster University (Belfast, Northern Ireland).

3.3. Data extraction procedure

	All the data collected and codified are compiled in the following csv files:
  
	File 1:
	Name: DA-L2EN adults
	Content: Data collected from the experimental group (L2 English adult learners whose L1 is Spanish) on the acquisition of English DA structures 	(prepositional to/for-datives and DOCs), as examined via an AJT
	Format: Microsoft Excel (csv format)
	Language: English

	File 2: DA-L1EN adults
	Content: Data collected from the control group (L1 English adults) on the acquisition of English DA structures (prepositional to/for-datives and 	DOCs), as examined via an AJT
	Format: Microsoft Excel (csv format)
	Language: English


3.4. Data classification: variables

	Both datasets are in long format (one answer per row):
    
 - Identifying variables: participants' ID, English proficiency level (A1-A2, B1-B2 and C1-C2 for the experimental L2 English group and native level for the L1 English control group), experimental items, possible answers, possible answers and expected answers (Likert scale format), condition code (e.g., TO_U for ungrammatical to-dative), and participants' response according to Likert scale.

- Linguistic variables:
	-Task: DA AJT = Dative Alternation Acceptability Judgment Task
        - Structure:
      		Experimental items (target structures):
			prepositional to-datives
			prepositional for-datives
			DOCs that alternate as to-datives
			DOCs that alternate as for-datives
	
      		Fillers (not considered for the data classification and data analyses):
			monotransitive structures
			copula verbs with an adjunct

- Condition:
	- AJT_DA (target structures):
		TO_G = Grammatical prepositional to-datives (items 1 to 5; e.g., He gave a book to Mary)
		FOR_G = Grammatical prepositional for-datives (items 6 to 10; e.g., He bought a book for Mary)
		TO_DOC_G = Grammatical DOCs that alternate as to-datives (items 11 to 15; e.g., He gave Mary a book)
		FOR_DOC_G = Grammatical DOCs that alternate as for-datives (items 16 to 20; e.g., He bought Mary a book)
		TO_U = Ungrammatical to-datives and their respective ungrammatical alternating DOCs (items 21 to 30; e.g., *I denied to George the reality)
		FOR_U = Ungrammatical for-datives and their respective ungrammatical alternating DOCs (items 31 to 40; e.g., *We found for Lauren the key)

	-Fillers (not considered for the data classification and data analyses):
		Grammatical monotransitive (e.g., I wanted the ice-cream)
		Ungrammatical monotransitive (e.g., *I the answer knew)
		Grammatical copula verb with an adjunct (e.g., I was in the park)
		Ungrammatical copula verb with an adjunct (e.g., *I in the UK was)

- Possible answers and expected answers (Likert scale format):
	
	1= very bad 
	2= bad 
	3= good 
	4= excellent  
     

4. DATA

4.1. Databases
	
The databases contain the raw data in long form with all the information related to the dataset. Each database is organized according to the variables described in section 3.4.
   
   	DA-L2EN adults.csv: it contains the online data elicited via the AJT from 89 participants organized into diverse experimental groups according to their English poficiency level. Number of variables = 7; number of rows = 1841. 
   	DA-L1EN adults.csv: it contains the offline data elicited via the AJT from 76 participants that perform as the control group. Number of variables = 7; number of rows = 3321.
   
4.2. Last update: 2025

5. RELATED DATASETS
	
	-English-Spanish bilingual children's acquisition data: spontaneous oral production of English DA constructions, extracted from four English-Spanish bilingual corpora available in the CHILDES project (Child Language Data Exchange System; https://childes.talkbank.org/; MacWhinney 2000), namely, Deuchar, FerFuLice, Perez-Bazan and Ticio. In this dataset, the children interact with adults (mainly, parents, but also caregivers or researchers). 


	DA-L1_English dataset: https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/52646