Transfer in periphrastic causatives in L2 English and L2 Spanish

This paper reports the results of a bidirectional study on the L2 acquisition of English and Spanish periphrastic causatives by adult learners. It is argued that different L1 grammatical properties are transferred at different levels of L2 proficiency. At earlier stages, L2 learners focus on L1 word order properties. However, at the advanced proficiency stage, L1 distinctions between causation types encoded by certain periphrastic causatives seem to be more at play. It is claimed that the L2 data is more consistent with a view of transfer as a developmentally constrained process.