Samenstelling in het Nederlands van Volwassen Turken en Marokkanen

The purpose of this research was to find out how Turkish and Moroccan adults make compositions in Dutch and what role the mothertongue plays in forming these. To collect data a vocabularytest was developed. The results showed that Turks and Moroccans form compositions in a significantly different way. They seem to follow the preferences of their mothertongue in both the choice of the construction (composition versus definition) and the order of Head and specifier whithin that construction. Turks form mostly specifier - Head compositions, Moroccans more often make definitions, and uniquely make Head - specifier compositions. The influence of the mothertongue is obvious but not easy to describe. The Moroccans experience negative influence expressed by interference. Whith the Turks the influence of the mothertongue is less visible, because they experience positive transfer, leading to facilitation.