On the typological economy of syntactic transfer: Word order and relative clause high/low attachment preference in L3 Brazilian Portuguese

摘要: One central question in the formal linguistic study of adult multilingual morphosyntax (i.e., L3/Ln acquisition) involves determining role(s) L1 and/ or L2 play(s) at L3 initial state (e.g., Bardel & Falk 2007; forthcoming; Flynn et al. 2004; Rothman Cabrelli Amaro 2010). The present article adds to this general program, testing Rothman's (forthcoming) model for transfer, which when relevant light speeific language pairings, maintains that typological proximity between languages is most deterministic variable selection syntactic transfer. Herein, I empirical evidence from later part beginning stages Brazilian Portuguese (BP) by native speakers English and Spanish, who have attained an advanced level proficiency either Spanish as L2. Examining related domains word order relative clause attachment preference BP, data clearly indicate transferred both experimental groups irrespective whether it was These results are expected model, but not necessarily predicted other current hypotheses transfer; implications discussed.