No Evidence of L1 Path Encoding Strategies in the L2 in Advanced Bulgarian Speakers of Norwegian

Abstract This article has two aims: we first test the applicability of Talmy's typology for describing the cross-linguistic encoding of directed motion with Norwegian and Bulgarian. Theoretically, these languages belong to the same group of satellite-framed languages. However, we show that they differ in their preferred strategies. Norwegian prefers an elaborate prepositional inventory and Bulgarian employs a rich verbal lexicon. We also test whether Bulgarian L2 speakers of Norwegian follow the L1 strategy in describing directed motion. We find no evidence of transfer in L2 speaker responses, which suggests target language thinking-for-speaking patterns.

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