L2 German Word Order Preferences by Immigrant L1 Korean Speakers

This study examines the L2 German verb placement preferences in 58 Korean immigrant workers in Germany. The verb placement preferences ences are compared to predictions of Organic Grammar (Vainikka and Young-Scholten, 2011). Assuming an incremental, bottom-up morphosyntactic development, the theory predicts the possibility that L2 acquirers develop only partial clausal structures. Organic Grammar further pro- poses a two-tree approach of morphosyntactic development and predicts that main clauses with verb-second order (V2) are acquired before subordinate clauses with verb- final order (OV). To test these predictions, participants completed two production tasks. Results show a mixed picture. Some participants' L2 clausal structure seems to have developed only partially, supporting the incremental approach. Regarding the predicted order of acquisition, however, some participants who showed robust use of target like subordination with OV, struggled with V2, preferring V3 instead. This suggests the need for a revision of the two-tree approach to incorporate the V3 preference.