Resumen de The transfer of V2: inversion and negation in German and Dutch learners of English

Tom Rankin

• This article investigates the transfer of verb-second syntax (V2) from L1 German and Dutch into L2 English. A comparative learner corpus analysis between L1 German, Dutch and French, and native English writing reveals that the German and Dutch speakers produce distinct patterns of inversion in declarative clauses, indicating the transfer of V2. They produce non-target subject–auxiliary inversion and copula inversion. However, other reflexes of V2 in interrogatives or with sentential negation are not produced. This is analysed as evidence that the German and Dutch learners have mastered the syntax of English but transfer continues to occur at the level of discourse-pragmatics, where L1 preferences for topicalization structures continue to transfer. This is in line with predictions of the Interface Hypothesis in second language acquisition, which assumes that the interfaces of syntax with other modules of the grammar are more difficult to acquire and may continue to show L1 effects even after the narrow syntax has been mastered.