How much does the first language weigh in the second language learning of object and verb properties?

Abstract

One of the defining properties of second language (L2) acquisition is crosslinguistic influence, which can be broadly defined as the influence that occurs between the two languages of the bilingual (e.g., Ringbom, 2007, 2016; Blom & Baayan, 2012; Montrul & Ionin, 2012; Gathercole, 2016; Unsworth, 2016; Llinás-Grau & Bel, 2019). In this study, we of-fer a characterization of crosslinguistic influence in the L2 English pro-duction of a group of sequential bilinguals that have Chinese as their first language (L1). In particular, we explore this language contact si-tuation between Chinese and English in the domain of direct objects, given that the production–omission of direct objects is regulated diffe-rently in these two languages.