Adverb placement in learner writing: the effect of linguistic features, cross-linguistic transfer, and register

Ozkan, Vildan (2023) Adverb placement in learner writing: the effect of linguistic features, cross-linguistic transfer, and register. Masters thesis, Northern Arizona University.

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Abstract

Due to their syntactic mobility, adverbs lend themselves well to first-language (L1)-related syntactic transfer studies (Hasselgård, 2015); however, there is a limited body of research looking into what other factors may influence adverb placement. Moreover, very few studies go beyond the realm of well-known Germanic and Romance languages. The present study is a partial replication of Larsson et al.’s (2020) work and revisits the question of whether adverb placement can help us detect L1 transfer; it also looks at the possible effect of linguistic variables (e.g., presence/absence of an auxiliary), extralinguistic variables (e.g., native-speaker (NS) status, L1 background), and register. The study looks at L1 German, L1 Turkish, and NS data with the aim of seeing whether the findings from Larsson et al. (2020) can be replicated with German and native-speaking students from a different register; it also extends our knowledge by looking at L1 Turkish use, a language that is very different from English typologically.The data were obtained from two different corpora; the International Corpus of Learner English (ICLE), the Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays (LOCNESS) and were coded manually based on the coding scheme from Larsson et al. (2020). The study looks at the following 15 epistemic adverbs (Granath, 2005): maybe, probably, possibly, really, simply, actually, apparently, certainly, clearly, definitely, evidently, obviously, perhaps, surely, and of course. The results show that German learners behaved more native-like compared to their Turkish counterparts who overused the clause initial position (e.g., probably she is here) and underused the clause-medial positions. Similar to Larsson et al.’s (2020) findings, the main predictors of adverb placement are linguistic rather than extralinguistic; although some traces of L1 transfer were detected with the Turkish data. Moreover, register seems to have a moderate effect when the German and NS use are compared with those of the original study.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Publisher’s Statement:	© Copyright is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the Cline Library, Northern Arizona University. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.
Keywords:	Adverb placement; German speakeers; Turkish speakers; LOCNESS
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
NAU Depositing Author Academic Status:	Student
Department/Unit:	Graduate College > Theses and Dissertations College of Arts and Letters > English
Date Deposited:	18 Jun 2025 23:20
Last Modified:	18 Jun 2025 23:20
URI:	https://openknowledge.nau.edu/id/eprint/6183

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